Su Xiaomei came over with a red lantern: "Brother Xiaoyou, let's go sell dementia!"

Su You was curious: "What?"

Hachiko chuckled and said: "Go ahead, sell your dementia, and everyone will be smarter!"

This is a New Year's Eve custom that has never been seen in later generations. Children carry lanterns and run around in groups. When they see an elderly person, they shout out to him for their dementia. The elderly people laugh and amuse themselves with the children. It is a very special custom.

Fun custom.

Seeing the expectant look in Su Xiaomei's eyes, Su You felt a little emotional. For these children, it was a luxury to participate in such a custom before.

I couldn't help but take a lantern: "Let's go! Go and sell your stupidity!"

It’s late on New Year’s Eve and people don’t sleep, tired of being slow to welcome the new year;

The child calls out to walk down the long street, and there is a cloud of dementia calling people to buy.

Of the two things among men, who alone has them? In the middle, Wu Nong still has more;

There is no selling in alleys south and north, so we laugh and tease each other when we meet.

Querk Weng sits under the heavy curtain and asks for the price.

Er Yunweng buys it without money, but he has been deceived for thousands of years by taking it on credit!

After running around the village for a long time, the mice and skinny children in the village also came out. There was a large group of children. The third brother laughed when he saw it: "Oh, there are too many dementias this year! I can't buy them all.

If you can’t finish it all, ask me to buy some too!”

I bought salted beans, dried fruits, candied fruits, etc. for dementia. After shopping around, the children all had a lot of food in their pockets.

The mouse was not satisfied yet: "Hachi is the best, he will definitely be easy to sell! Let's go find Hachi!"

Then a group of children came towards the ancestral hall in a noisy manner.

The things here at Hachigong are all paper boxes, and inside the boxes are various kinds of edible fruits, seasonal fruits, honey fried, candied fried, glutinous rice cakes, Chengsha dumplings, honey ginger black beans, jujube cakes, honey crisps, five-color beans,

Fried chestnuts, ginkgo...

Some are bought in the city, and some are made by ourselves. They are much more exquisite and richer than any other.

After being sold out, the children came to the classroom.

Take out all the things you get from selling your stupidity and put them on the plate as a midnight snack.

When I'm thirsty, I boil fermented glutinous rice water in a pot and mix it with egg drop. I can drink it whenever I want.

There are also many board and card games. If you lose, you can draw a cat and put a sticker on it.

According to local custom, people gather together every year, which is called "testing niangeng".

Whoever wins more tonight will have better luck next year.

Hachigong, Su You, Su Xiaomei and Shuanzhu were playing with the big two. Although Hachigong was illiterate, he knew the big two from one to nine.

He turned over a card and shouted "Eat." Hachiko smiled and looked at the children playing around him: "In a while, we will put out food and wine to sacrifice to the God of Plague, and then throw the sacrificial utensils and so on outside the wall. We will see you tomorrow.

Don't pick up pottery bowls or clay pots outside, as they may make you sick."

The inventor may not necessarily be a good player. Of the four, Su You had the most notes on his head, followed by Tie, Hachigong also had two or three on his face, and the younger sister had a clean face.

As soon as Su You spoke, his breath made the notes fly around: "There are so many things to pay attention to during the New Year."

Hachigong said: "Yes, the customs are different in different walks of life. In ordinary people's homes, they usually send gifts to the plague god. For example, in silkworm households, the tails of mice are cut off."

While Su You was flipping the cards, he was puzzled: "Does the rat tail have anything to do with silkworm rearing?"

Hachiko said with a smile: "What do silkworm farmers fear most? The heat. Silkworms will die if it gets too hot, or they will lay cocoons in advance, and the year's harvest will be over. Rats are in hot weather, and rats are hunted in the twelfth lunar month. On the first day of the first lunar month, the sun is gone.

Cutting off the tail when it comes out is called 'breaking off the summer tail'!"

Su You smiled and said: "Oh, the pot on the back is bigger than the pot on our stove!"

How to determine the time to reach Zizheng was also a question, Su You couldn't help but ask.

Hachiko smiled and said, "That's about it. When you hear firecrackers going off in any house, everyone will set them off, and then go to bed and finish the work."

After playing for a while, the sound of firecrackers began to be heard, and Hachiko said: "Let's go, open up and respect the sky."

During the Zizheng period, every household sets off firecrackers and opens their doors to welcome the spring, which is commonly known as "Kaizheng".

They were tied up in the courtyard and lit firecrackers. The children covered their ears and formed a circle in the outer courtyard, laughing and watching. Hachiko set up an incense table in the main hall, set up fruit boxes, sugar boxes, chicken, fish and pork, burned incense and candles, and received

Wear Su oil to worship heaven and ancestors.

After setting off the firecrackers, Su You took the children to salute Hachigong one by one.

There was a stack of red envelopes beside Hachigong, and he would happily hand out one to a child who came over. There was ten coins in it as a lucky gift.

After that, we arranged for everyone to go to bed.

In the early hours of the morning, Su You was woken up by Hachigong again. The two of them quietly prepared food and wine to worship the God of Plague, and then threw the sacrificial utensils and other items outside the wall.

As soon as the big rooster crows, it's still dark, so Su You has to get up again. First he greets Hachigong and calls him "He Zheng", and then starts to clear the ash pile.

People in the Song Dynasty would string money on the end of a bamboo pole, circle it around the ashes a few times, and then throw it on the ashes, saying that their wishes would come true in the New Year.

I hit the dung pile at dawn on New Year's Eve, and the dust flew all over the courtyard.

But I hope everything goes as I wish, and I will send you back to Pengze.

The next step is to put the pepper wine and five spice dishes. Kill the chicken and paste the chicken feathers on it.

Pepper wine is wine soaked in pepper seeds. The ancients drank it early on the first day of the first lunar month to ward off evil and pray for blessings. The five-spicy plate is a plate of five spicy foods, also known as the spring plate. It is said to ward off evil and eliminate plague.

, connects the five internal organs, and also means to welcome the new.

The children were woken up by the sound of ash piles being struck, and were pleasantly surprised to find that there was a new set of winter clothes and shoes on their bedside.

I happily put on my new clothes, went out and wished Hachigong a happy New Year, and then went to wash up.

Zhang Zao sneaked out of the room secretly, and Su You saw him at a glance: "Brother Zaowa, where are your new clothes?!"

Zhang Zao rubbed his hands: "I can't bear to wear it..."

Hachiko chuckled and said: "Put it on, it's rare for Xiaoyou to be thoughtful. After you change, go wash up. After dinner, I'm going to go to the group to worship. I'll leave the New Year's Eve matters to you."

Zhang Zao's eyes turned red, and he bowed to Hachigong: "Yes."

Hachiko shook his head and sighed in a low voice: "Hey, what a good boy, I didn't live a good life, but it's all over, it's over..."

The so-called group worship is a gathering of the elderly from several villages. Every year, one village reviews and buys meat and wine. The elderly sit together and chat about the old days, enhance friendship, and show off the good deeds of their own village.

In fact, giving gifts to the new year can start from the twelfth lunar month, when you pick up gifts and give them to relatives and friends. Everyone exchanges gifts with each other. It doesn’t matter whether you give more or less. What matters is the intention of blessing each other, which is also called "new year gift giving".

Regardless of food, wine, and wild food, a New Year's plate is given at the end of each year.

Although the gifts are few and honest, the friendship and neighborliness overflow the mountains and rivers.

The Su You family has received many annual gifts, but they have been so busy that they have not returned the gifts yet.

Do not eat porridge or meat on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, so you can only eat dumplings.

It's troublesome to wrap it up when there are many people, so Su You put the dry rice noodles directly into the dustpan, dip the stuffing ball into water and boil it.

Roll a circle of flour, put it in a colander to wet it and roll it again. After a while, the glutinous rice balls will become twice as big as the fillings. Put it in the pot and start cooking.

Hachiko said angrily: "You should focus on studying! You have so many ideas all day long!"

Su Younan smiled and said: "Isn't it because I want you to eat it quickly to show off to the group? There are three flavors today, black sesame, peanut and orange!"

The kids and Hachiko actually liked this stuff, but Su You couldn't eat a few of it himself, so he only came to Four Seasons to make a fortune.

There are relatives in the whole village, so the return gifts have to be walked all the way. Fortunately, there are many people, so a few big boys carry the bags all the way.

The advantage of having too many people is that when there are too many people, no one dares to save food, and a half-grown man will eat me to death. If there are more than a dozen at a time, the battle is really scary.

The gifts are very simple, two bottles of soy sauce, one bottle of vinegar, one can of bean paste, and five packets of rice krispie treats.

It shouldn’t be too expensive. Gifts that are too disparate will embarrass others, so giving gifts should be particular.

Tu Zi is the only outsider in the village, the kind of orphan who knocks in the door, but he is still filial to his parents-in-law. Seeing Su You come to deliver the New Year's plate, he has not forgotten himself, so I won't say how happy he is.

As we go around in a circle, the gifts get fewer and fewer, and the children gather together more and more.

Back home, everyone started playing on the playground.

Girls play skipping ropes, swings, jumping grids, kicking shuttlecocks, throwing sandbags...

The boys were acting like monkeys. They gathered around the new home in the ancestral hall and played games such as officers and soldiers catching thieves, bandits rescuing their accomplices, cockfights, and map drawing. It was a mess on the playground.
Chapter completed!