Meng Yan's Transformation

Early in the morning on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, firecrackers from the fourth team of Aobao began to go off sporadically.

The villagers in the village came to Zhan Yu's house one after another to ask Yunqing to write Spring Festival couplets, cut "hanging money", and draw New Year pictures.

The night of New Year's Eve, also known as "New Year's Eve", is mainly concentrated in the village during the afternoon, that is, from 1:00 to 3:00, when the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets and "hanging money" begins.

People in the village call it "offering big paper", for example, New Year pictures are posted on the house. Most of the New Year pictures are "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", "Good Soldier Who Serves Wholeheartedly", "Little Waiter" and other kinds of New Year pictures. They should be posted on the east wall, west wall and north wall. Couplets should also be posted, starting from the door inside the house and pasting outside. The door inside the house usually has "loyalty and honesty are passed down from generation to generation, poetry and books are passed down from generation to generation", and the door outside usually has "so that the spring grass is green, and the apricot flowers are still red for ten miles", "the garden is full of spring colors" and "the beginning of a new year, everything is renewed", etc. In addition, "hanging money" should be posted, and "hanging money" is hollowed-out paper. Legend has it that it was passed down when Jiang Ziya conferred the gods. After Jiang Ziya conferred the gods, his wife also asked him for a title, but the titles were full, so Jiang Taigong had to confer his wife as the God of Poverty. Jiang Taigong thought that if the God of Poverty entered a poor family, wouldn't the family become even poorer? So he added a small condition, that is, "no entry when seeing broken things", the God of Poverty was not allowed to enter poor families. He could only enter rich families. Later, in order to stop the God of Poverty, people would hang torn paper strips on windows during festivals. Later, the torn paper strips gradually evolved into "hanging money" with various patterns and auspicious words cut out. At the same time, some places had to be posted. For example, if a door had "Look up and see happiness", and if you saw another place when you went out, you had to write "Go out and see happiness", and on the donkey carts, horse carts and other vehicles outside, you had to write "Travel thousands of miles, people and horses are safe". On the pigpen, you had to put "Fat pigs in the pen", on the chicken rack, you had to put "Golden chickens in the rack", and on a well, you had to put "Good luck in the well", because it was the New Year, and you had to put it on every place that could be posted. The Kitchen God must be invited back on the 30th day and returned to his original position. Of course, there is also a couplet that reads "Speak good things to God in heaven and keep the world safe" and a horizontal banner that reads "Head of the family".

The people in the village have a sense of awe for heaven and earth. They put up a "Heaven and Earth Sign" on the southwest corner outside the south window wall to show their awe for heaven and earth. On the "Heaven and Earth Sign" they write "The heaven and earth are so big, how mighty are the ghosts and gods", with a horizontal banner "Heaven and Earth Have Not Spoken". After putting it up, they also put up a spring strip, which is a sentence. Each sentence has several "spring" characters, such as spring, spring day, spring water, spring cattle on the grass, spring flowers blooming in the spring garden, spring birds happy to land on the spring trees, etc. When putting these up, they also put up their own lantern poles so that they can light them at night. When the lantern poles are put up, they also put a few pine branches on the top to show that spring has been seen.

Every household in the village has to post door gods, and they are guarded by a pair, one is Qin Qiong and the other is Yuchi Gong. The transformation of Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong into door gods originated from the two novels "Journey to the West" and "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties". The story in "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties" says: "Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, killed countless people during his empire. After he ascended the throne, he suffered from many illnesses, and had restless dreams and nightmares at night. Li Shimin was very scared and could not stand the torture. After summoning all the generals and ministers to discuss, he asked Marshal Qin Qiong and General Yuchi Gong to guard the palace gates every night with armor and weapons. As expected, nothing happened and Li Shimin stopped having nightmares. However, over time, Taizong remembered that Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong worked day and night, so he asked the palace painters to draw the two generals in military uniforms, with angry eyes and whips in their hands, and hung them on both sides of the palace gates. After that, all evil spirits disappeared." Later, as time went by, it was transformed into every household hanging their images to protect the safety of the home during the New Year, and this became the Chinese door gods.

Zifeng used the sorghum stalks he found yesterday to make lanterns for his brothers and sisters, who sat around and watched. Zifeng used a newly sharpened knife to cut the white, thin and long sorghum stalks, and gently twisted them to cut out the stubble. He cut them evenly one by one, preparing to make the frame material for the lanterns. The bamboo sticks were sharpened thin and pointed, and the bamboo strips were broken thin and long, soft and tough when soaked in water. The cut sorghum stalks were cut into half-broken and half-connected incisions in the middle or at both ends with a knife, and gently folded to bend the straight sorghum stalks into various angles, and the bamboo sticks were used as tenons to connect them. According to the settings of the shapes, Zifeng made the frames of various lanterns. After Zifeng made two large round lanterns in front of the house, he asked his brothers and sisters to choose what kind of lanterns they wanted. The brothers and sisters used their imagination to come up with the shape of their own lanterns. Finally, they made a revolving lantern with a circle inside and a square outside for Ziqiang, a square sedan lantern for Zian, a triangular monkey lantern for Zixun, a rabbit lantern for Yingying, and a watermelon lantern for Mengyan... After the frame was made, Yunqing and Zifeng pasted paper on the lantern frame together, cutting thin paper according to the size of the lantern, and using a brush to dip in a medium-thick paste. Evenly apply it on the frame of the lantern, and then mount the cut paper pattern upward. After a while, the white paper wrapped the sorghum stalk frame of the lantern, and the two lanterns in front of the house were wrapped with bright red paper, and the shape of each lantern appeared. The pasted lanterns were hung on the long rope in the yard one by one, dazzling white and red in the winter sun, swaying in the winter wind. After two hours, the paste dried. Yunqing used red or colored paper to cut out mascots and various laces and pasted them on the lanterns. The beautiful lanterns were completed. The children happily took their favorite lanterns away... Asked Zhan Yu for a red candle with the words "kowtow" and put it in the lanterns. When it got dark, they lit it and went to the skating rink with the children in the village. Zhan Yu also bought a red and a green lotus for Yingying and Mengyan, but the two sisters both wanted the green lotus. After the argument, Mengyan gave in and tied the green lotus that she liked on her sister Yingying's head...

There are many historical records about lanterns. According to the famous archaeologist Wei Cuncheng, Chinese lanterns are the earliest portable lighting tools developed in the world. The word "Dong" in oracle bone script may be a description of the image of the original lantern. The "History of the Southern Dynasties" records the sentence "Kudzu lanterns are hung on the wall". Kudzu is a white coarse cloth woven with hemp. Lanterns made of it may be the original prototype of gauze lanterns. Red lanterns flourished after the founding of New China. After years of development, they became lanterns for festivals and celebrations.

Yunqing distributed firecrackers to the boys in the family. Yingying and Mengyan were too timid to set off firecrackers. The boys divided the firecrackers into several groups. Firecrackers can be set off on New Year's Eve to welcome the gods, the first day of the new year, the third day of the new year {send off the gods}, the fifth day of the new year also known as Po Wu, and the fifteenth day of the first month also known as the Lantern Festival, which highlights the joyful and peaceful atmosphere during the Spring Festival.

In order to liven up the festive atmosphere and to save money, the children in the village disassembled the whole string of firecrackers, lit them one by one in their hands, and then threw them into the air, competing with each other to see who could do more tricks and having a lot of fun.

The custom of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival began in the Tang Dynasty, when people believed that setting off firecrackers could drive away evil spirits and resist plague. Now people set off firecrackers to express joy and pray for blessings.