Essay • 2022 Welcome | Blue: Lapa Porridge in My Hometown| Our Festivals • Oral Folklore

Text/Azure

Every year into the Wax Moon, I always feel that the attributes of being a Chinese are particularly distinct. As the lunar year draws to a close, the national calendar day recedes to a secondary position. Nursery rhymes sing "Children and children, don't be hungry, after the Lap 8 is the Year", the first festival of the WaxIng Moon is coming.

Probably because the hometown has a special affection for the Lapa Festival, the eighth, eighteenth and twenty-eighth of the first month of the Lapa Festival are called the Lapa Festival, but the eighth day of the first month is the grand. Because the eighteenth and twenty-eighth were busy eating transfers, they couldn't take care of eating Laba porridge. Think about it, I haven't drunk my hometown porridge in many years. The laba porridge in my hometown is salty, just like the salty bone porridge of Cantonese people.

In my young years, my mother paid more attention to the Lapa Festival, and began to make it early in the morning. After eating breakfast, the mother cleaned up the kitchen, took out the fat sausage and sausage from the "angry cat", cut a section of each, and then went upstairs to fight two ribs down, put it into the porcelain basin together with the fat sausage and sausage, scooped a scoop of hot water from the pot, and washed it carefully. Because they have all been smoked, the water that was washed twice before was black and dark, and it should be washed several times repeatedly.

To prevent the hungry cat from stealing, the mother put the washed meat dishes in a basin and put them in a cupboard or covered it with something. In those years, cats would guard against cats, and "angry cats" seemed to be named specifically for cat prevention. "Gas dead cat" is a kind of bamboo utensils, which put the heart, tongue and large intestine and other pig water hanging above the stove top smoked, there are gaps but the cat's paws can not reach in, the cat can not see and eat, hungry to the heart itchy, so called "gas dead cat".

After my mother prepared the wax flavor, she led us to the field to find green vegetables. The radish crawled in the ground, revealing a red and tender face, and when he grabbed Sakurako, he could uproot it. The cabbage is like a half-open lotus, and the leaves with a pale blue halo at the bottom are like open petals, holding crystal frost and dewdrops, and the heart is tightly wrapped. The mother cut it from the roots, carried the vegetable gang, and the frost and snow and dew fell out. The leaves and skin of the lettuce are purple-red, that is, crops that can emit the fragrance of vegetables, a knife cut down, immediately out of the milky white pulp, the pulp is sticky, sticky on the hands, in a moment it becomes black. Carrots grow densely together, the leaves are verdant, and when we were children, we tied carrots and cherry blossoms as shuttlecocks to kick. When pulling carrots, I often heard my mother say that the agricultural proverb "carrots are sweet, and when you see them, you will celebrate the New Year." The vegetables grown in season are also related to the climate to a certain extent, which shows the cultural heritage of the farming people.

After a while, my mother's back was filled with fresh and lovely vegetables. When I got home, my mother washed her hands and went into the kitchen to get busy. She put the ribs, sausages, fatty sausages, corn, red beans, mung beans and rice from the back fire into the pot and boiled them first. My father put the wooden basin by the well and put the vegetables that had been plucked from the old leaves into the wooden basin to wash. Turnips and lettuce are peeled, and washed carrots are cut into cubes and set aside, lotus white porridge and soup are customary to use stems, and cabbage soups previously grown in the field have a faint sweetness.

The meat is cooked, the fire is large, and then all the prepared greens are put into the porridge, and the porridge slowly becomes entangled, and the pot "grunts" continue to bubble. The steaming heat filled the kitchen, and the smoky smell of bacon and the fresh smell of vegetables sprang into the nose.

The mother clamped up the ribs, sausages and large intestines, and when she cut them, the sister here took a bowl of scooped porridge. When the porridge was served, the ribs, sausages and large intestines cut by the mother were also served on a plate. Then from the jar to a few pieces of red tofu, a dish of kimchi, the family around the big wooden table to eat steaming Laba porridge, it is really heaven and earthly happiness. I was very addicted to the days with the strong smell of fireworks, although the conditions were far less good than they are now, but my mother always tried to make the day taste better.

At that time, there was a big peach tree in our yard. When eating Laba porridge, my mother said that if you cut a hole in the peach tree with an axe, feed it some food and paste it, the peaches will be fruitful next year (Chongqing dialect, which means fruitful). Listening to my mother's words, although I was suspicious, I still couldn't help but get off the bench and look at the peach trees in the yard. The porridge wrapped in my mouth forgot to swallow for a moment, and it seemed that between pitches, the peach tree was full of bright red peach blossoms, and the furry fruit loomed among the dense foliage. Later, when I grew up, I actually found evidence for what my mother said that year. The Qing "Fangxian Chronicle" volume 11 "Customs" said: "Lapa Eight Days, rice and wheat beans and vegetables and fruits as porridge, called Lapa Eight Porridge." There are untruths in the fruit tree, and they take the porridge from the tree with an axe and put it in the hole, and ask, 'The knot is not knotted, and the branches are crushed.' It's called 'feeding the tree'. ”

The holiday memories of my youth are a thread implanted in the brain, floating out in the clear place of the landscape.

【About the Author】

Zhanlan, a native of Chongqing, now settled in Chengdu. Published a collection of essays "Full Tank of Water Lilies Under the Cherry Blossom Tree" and "My Moonlight".

【"Huanhuaxi" Literary Column Call for Papers】

Welcome to submit pure literary works such as essays (including travelogues) and small novels, and poetry is not within the scope of the call for papers because the editorial department of the department organizes its own manuscripts. In principle, the number of words should not exceed 1500 words, and the title indicates "essay" or "travelogue" or "short novel". Works must be original debuts, exclusive submissions to the "Huanhuaxi" column, and plagiarism, multiple submissions per draft, and even more prohibitions for publicly published works to be submitted. Authors can attach their own profiles and photos to their manuscripts. Don't use attachments in the email, just send the text directly. Some of his works will be selected by the supplement of the West China Metropolis Daily "Wide and Narrow Alley". The author's information includes the bank card account name, detailed and accurate information of the bank and outlets, card number, ID card number, and telephone number. Submission mailbox: [email protected].

[If you have a news thread, please report to us, once adopted, there is a fee reward.] Feed WeChat attention: ihxdsb, feed QQ: 3386405712]