I brought a Jurassic

Chapter 261: Wangjia Village’s Unique Tradition
After running around outside and playing with the children in the village, it was almost twelve o'clock when Wang Luo and Li Jun returned home with a curtain of dumplings made by their grandmother.

"Why are the customs here different from those in Jinan? Don't we all eat dumplings on New Year's Eve? Tonight we had vegetables and drank wine, but we didn't eat dumplings. I don't know what customs you have here, and I didn't have the nerve to ask!"

After returning home and seeing Wang Luo put the dumplings on the table, Li Jun began to ask.

"The customs in our province of Lu are basically the same. As far as I know, Langya also follows the tradition of eating dumplings on New Year's Eve, but later our village changed the tradition. We no longer eat dumplings on New Year's Eve, but on the first day of the new year. You will know about this tomorrow!"

Wang Luo didn't say anything clearly. He ran to the next room, found a wooden stick as thick as a child's arm, walked to the front door, and placed the stick horizontally in front of the threshold.

"What kind of custom is this?"

Although Li Jun had traveled a lot before and seen many strange things, this was the first time he had seen such a New Year's Eve custom in this small mountain village.

"There are two main interpretations of the gate stick. One is to stop the ghosts outside from entering your home, and the other is to stop blessings and fortune from leaking out.

The second one is more legendary. It is said that in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was on a northern expedition. The north was under the rule of foreigners. In order to distinguish good people from bad people, he placed a stick at the door. This custom was passed down. After the fifth day of the first lunar month, the stick can be removed. "

The master and his disciple did not go to sleep either, and began to stay up until after twelve o'clock.

"Pip-pa, pip-pa!"

After twelve o'clock, large-scale firecrackers began to explode in the village. Wang Luo also took out the firecrackers, hung one on the tree in the yard, lit it, and waited until they were all set off before returning to the house.

"Master, I kowtow to you and wish you good health and success in the new year!"

Li Jun was sitting on the edge of the kang, while Wang Luo was kneeling on the ground, kowtowing to him and saying some auspicious words.

"Okay, okay, get up, get up, and have a happy New Year, too. I wish you academic progress in the new year and greater contributions to national construction. Here, take it, the New Year's money!"

Li Jun was very happy. In previous years, he had been alone during the New Year, but this year he had someone to take care of the elderly and inherit the family. He happily took out the red envelope he had prepared in advance and handed it to Wang Luo, expressing his wishes.

Wang Luo immediately took the red envelope.

As for the custom of kowtow to greet the New Year, it has disappeared in later generations. Anyway, most areas no longer have this custom. People just go over to smoke a cigarette, drink a cup of tea, and chat casually, and that is considered to be greeting the old age. Only some places in Shandong still have this custom, which has been commented on by many netizens and regarded as a strange thing. But in this era, this old tradition is still maintained. Kowtow to greet the New Year is a traditional etiquette and custom of the Spring Festival. It is a courtesy for the younger generation to express respect for the elders. In addition to Shandong, kowtow to worship ancestors and greet the New Year during the Spring Festival is also widely practiced in many places. Depending on the occasion and the object, each region has different kowtow etiquette.

According to the analysis, Wang Luo believes that kowtow during the Chinese New Year is a custom that has been passed down. The benefit is that it allows younger generations to learn to be grateful, and it is a blessing for the health of the elders and a remembrance of deceased relatives. It is also a serious expression of family relationships.

However, many young people in later generations also said that kowtow during the Spring Festival is a bit unbelievable and difficult to accept. Others believe that expressing gratitude to parents and elders during the Spring Festival is worth promoting, but it does not need to be mandatory. Many elderly people said that "kowtow to greet the New Year", kneeling or not, is a form of expressing emotion and respect. Kneeling on both knees and supporting the ground with both hands is more of an expression of piety, gratitude, and respect for the elderly.

The husband has his reasons and the wife has her reasons, but he himself feels that it is better to kowtow and wish a happy new year to his elders, as some old traditions cannot be abandoned.

After they kowtowed to Li Jun and wished a happy new year, a group of children from outside came in. The New Year at this time was the festival that children looked forward to the most. They did so not for anything else but to get a few more candies, peanuts, melon seeds and the like. The request was so simple that after 12 o'clock, the children could no longer hold back and ran out early.

Wang Luo's family is the first choice. Their generation is not low. Goushengzi is in his twenties and still calls him uncle. Since Wang Zhonghua is not here, he will represent their family. In addition, this year there is an old man named Li Jun, who is the heir of the Swallow Sect who had worked with them in the past. He is respected, so the house will be full this year. More importantly, this year Wang Luo's family brought back White Rabbit milk candy from Beijing. It is a rare item. The children knew about it a long time ago, so they came early in the morning.

The little kids who got candy and a little bit of New Year's money immediately turned around and ran to the next house. The main thing was to have fun.

"Master, when you come to my house this year, you will be the elder of the family. There aren't many people in the village, and you've gotten to know them all these days, so you should stay at home and represent my father while I greet the people who are paying New Year's greetings. I'll go out and pay New Year's greetings to the elders, and when I come back, I'll cook dumplings and show you what different customs we have here!"

With that, Wang Luo strolled out. The great-grandfather and other old people went door to door. When they arrived, they kowtowed and then took red envelopes. The red envelopes were really not big, just one cent, two cents, five cents or something like that, not a dime more. It didn't matter whether the money was a lot or a little, they just wanted good luck. Finally, the kind of New Year's greetings that only took money were a bit too much. In this case, one yuan for the New Year's money, while in Guangdong Province it's not bad, ten or twenty yuan is enough. How could it look like to give thousands or tens of thousands of yuan for the New Year's money!

After walking around, Wang Luo returned home and used the stove that had not been used as a decoration for years and was only brought back to warm the kang during the New Year. He put water in the big pot and started to cook dumplings. There were not many dumplings in the first pot, just about a dozen.

After cooking the dozen dumplings, he fished them out and put them in a bowl. Then he called the curious Li Jun to join him and went out with the dumplings. At this moment, all the villagers in Wangjia Village were like him, each holding the first bowl of dumplings in their home, and went to the back mountain in silence and solemnity.

There is no joy of the Spring Festival at this moment, only a feeling of depression. Even children are not allowed to walk forward with laughter.

There are hundreds of graves standing quietly in the pine and cypress forests on the back mountain, and the words "Tomb of a certain martyr" are engraved on the stone tablets.

Yes, this is a martyrs' cemetery, a martyrs' cemetery unique to Wangjia Village. It is the burial place of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives on this land for the safety of the villagers of Wangjia Village during the war years.

(End of this chapter)