On New Year's Eve, the whole family is busy.
Old Master Xia directed his sons to climb onto the roof, sweep the snow, and replace the roof with new tiles and thatch.
The old Spring Festival couplets were taken down from the door and new ones were pasted on.
Window decorations with characters like "Look up and see happiness," "Prosperity of livestock," "Auspicious snow and a good harvest," and the character "Fu" were all pasted up. All of these had to be pasted neatly before noon, without missing a single spot.
Zhou brought all the female members of the family together to make dumplings.
Zhou assigned tasks to several daughters-in-law.
Liu was in charge of kneading the fine white flour, leaving it in a basin to rise. Kneading dough was strenuous work, and although Liu didn't want to sweat, she didn't dare refuse. Her smile froze when she heard her mother-in-law's instructions.
Sun was responsible for chopping ten pounds of minced meat. The meat was selected by Zhou herself, and it was all pork belly with both fat and lean meat.
Zhou also carefully selected two cabbages, two sauerkrauts, and two radishes, and asked Wu and Jiang to work together to clean them first, and then chop the vegetables into small pieces in preparation for mixing them into the stuffing.
The fifth son's wife, Cheng, was responsible for taking care of the pregnant eldest son's wife, Zhu, and also looked after several younger children, such as Meihua, Linghua, Liulang, and Zaohua.
Zhou did it herself, spread twenty eggs and added two pieces of tofu.
Xia Yujiao was responsible for peeling onions and garlic, and mixing the dumpling fillings.
The older girls, Jinhua, Taohua, Xinghua and Lihua, were all assigned tasks by Zhou.
Jinhua is responsible for picking leeks, Taohua is responsible for lighting the fire and boiling water, and Xinghua is responsible for cleaning the chopping board and knives, and scrubbing the pots and pans.
Lihua was in charge of soaking mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, and dried vegetables, and she also had to check for omissions and fill in the gaps. If she found a shortage of people or needed help, she would quickly step in.
The other children were also very sensible. The boys took three or five small firecrackers and ran to the village, called their friends, buried the firecrackers in the snow, lit the seal with half a broken incense stick, and then covered their ears and retreated to a safe distance.
The boys love firecrackers, and the sporadic "bang", "bang" and "bang" sounds come one after another continuously.
The girls all followed their older sister sensibly, and were very attentive and ready to lend a hand at any time.
Of course, there are also those who are not so self-aware, such as Yinhua.
At first, she stayed in her room, unwilling to come out. Later, when she came out, she did not go to Jinhua, but to her sister-in-law Zhu, chatting with her to relieve her boredom.
Whenever Xia Daohua glanced over, Yinhua's eyes would show a bit of panic and evasion.
I don't know what she's afraid of. Is she afraid Xia Daohua will hold her responsible for not informing her family in time? Or is she worried Xia Daohua will remember something unfavorable about her?
After working for a while, the dough was ready and several kinds of dumpling fillings were mixed evenly. Zhou then sat down with her wives and granddaughters and happily started making dumplings.
With more people, work naturally gets done much faster.
Around two or three o'clock in the afternoon, the setting sun shone warmly into the house, and the table was already filled with curtains.
Each curtain is filled with plump white dumplings, arranged in circles, tightly packed together, and in rows and lines.
Take all the curtains outside to freeze, and then start stewing meat, tofu, and sauerkraut blood sausage.
The Xia family worked until dark, and every household in Beiguan Village lit up a lamp.
On weekdays, anyone who dares to light a lamp and stay up late at night will be scolded by the frugal old man in the family.
But it’s Chinese New Year now!
Every household pays attention to a bright and spacious home.
Even the poorest families in the village had to light up the lights and they were not allowed to turn them off until dawn.
After dinner, the Xia family first went to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors and kowtowed to them, and then returned home. Everyone gathered together and had a very sumptuous dinner. Except for the children, everyone drank some wine.
At the dinner table, everyone was talking and chatting, not as quiet as usual.
After eating and drinking, there was another busy period of cleaning up.
After that, he kowtowed to old man Xia Ping'an and old lady Zhou to wish them a happy new year.
Follow the directions from the main room to Xia Yujiao.
Then came Dalang’s generation.
The rule in the Xia family is that anyone who is not married is considered a child.
Therefore, in Daohua's generation, only Xia Dalang and Zhu Shi did not receive lucky money. However, Xia Yujiao, from the previous generation, although older in generation, did receive lucky money.
The lucky money was wrapped in red paper, but everyone knew how much each person got - ten copper coins for each boy and five copper coins for each girl.
Then the old couple took out the treasure they had been hiding - a large basin of frozen pears, frozen persimmons, and frozen red flowers.
The children rushed over cheering, and Xia Daohua couldn't help but smile.
Mrs. Zhou hurriedly stated, "Don't worry, everyone. Each person can only eat one frozen persimmon or pear. If you eat more, you might catch a cold. Huahong can have a handful, but don't let it cool your stomach. Save some space, we still have to eat dumplings later!"
The children cheered and agreed, stretching out their little hands and picking out their favorite food from the big basin.
As soon as he got it, he turned around and ran.
Xia Daohua also reached out her little hand and took a frozen persimmon. She took a light bite of the persimmon skin, and the cool feeling instantly refreshed her whole body.
The persimmon skin was slightly astringent, but the sweetness was even stronger. She followed the small bite and took a deep sip. The thick, sweet persimmon juice flowed into her mouth with a "swish".
“Comfortable!”
Xia Daohua narrowed her eyes and smiled.
I don’t know if it’s because the variety is relatively primitive, but these persimmons are not very big, but they taste so delicious!
Not only did the children happily eat these frozen fruits that were a specialty of Beiguan Town, but the adults also picked out their favorites and started eating them happily.
Zhou had good teeth. She held a black frozen pear in her hand and ate it while talking to Old Man Xia.
After everyone chatted and laughed for a while, they heard the melodious sound of bells, followed by a "bang!" and a ball of fireworks exploded high in the sky, illuminating half of the night sky.
The bright light shone through the two thick layers of window paper and into the house.
It turned out that the county government had rung the bell, announced the time, and set off fireworks.
The fireworks set off by the county government were like a signal. Soon after, firecrackers were heard in many places in the county, and many wealthy families also set off fireworks.
For a moment, the night sky was full of beautiful scenery.
The scenery is colorful, dazzling, and full of fireworks, which is breathtakingly beautiful.
This attracted many people to run out of their homes and stand in an open space with a good view. They stretched their necks, stood on tiptoe, looked around, and their heads kept turning around following the light of the fireworks and the sound of firecrackers. They didn't know where to stare at.
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