One day, the puppets came to our school. At that time, the sun was so strong that it could make people dizzy. I pushed my way to the front and saw the little wooden man. Its joints shook slightly, and then it actually made a somersault. There are more than a dozen thin threads tied to its body, and those thin threads are like transparent destiny. At that moment, I suddenly felt like crying - I felt in my heart that the puppet controlled by strings was particularly like us who were bound by homework. However, it beats so happily, as if those threads are not a restraint, but wings to help fly.
Later, the artist asked me to give it a try, and the threads were all twisted together in my hands. The puppet looked like a drunken fool. The master worked on it for a long time with a smile on his face and said: "My child, the more threads there are, the more you have to relax. If you hold them tightly, you can't move."
I don't understand. But I remember.
Why do we throw rice dumplings into the river during the Dragon Boat Festival?
Grandma never uses string to make rice dumplings, only a piece of Malan grass, which she said is a method that has been around for a long time. Those reed leaves are folded into a funnel shape in Grandma's hands, and countless grains of rice keep falling inside like a drizzle. First, a jujube grain is buried, and then it is covered with a layer of rice. When it is time to seal, Grandma bites the grass stem with her teeth and tugs hard, and finally the rice dumpling becomes docile.
I asked why we eat rice dumplings.
Grandma said it was because Qu Yuan jumped into the river.
I asked who Qu Yuan was.
She said she was a very patriotic person.
I asked again why he jumped into the river.
Grandma fell into silence and threw the object containing the rice dumplings into the pot, causing the water in the pot to ripple and splash, and the water droplets flew upward. Immediately afterwards, water droplets quickly accumulated on the lid of the pot, and the water droplets rolled down one after another in the shape of granules, shaped like tears.
Why do you have to use red paper for paper-cutting?
My mother said bright red and green were too earthy. But grandma only recognizes red paper.
On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, my grandma was sitting on the kang in a cross-legged posture. The scissors she held in her hands were like live fish. Paper scraps would fall rustlingly and fall on her navy blue cotton-padded jacket. The red color was very dazzling. She was cutting the fish "there are fish every year", and the fish scales were cut with a zigzag pattern. She also cut the "magpie climbing the plum blossom", and when cutting the magpie, the eyes should be left white.
"Why does it have to be red?"
Grandma said without raising her head: "Ghosts are afraid of red."
"Is there really a ghost?"
"You can believe it."
She handed me the cut window grilles and asked me to stick them on the window. Just as he turned around, he heard her say from behind: "Today's children don't believe in anything, and everything is gone.".
The red paper was stuck to the glass, and the room was glowing with a light red light throughout the afternoon, but I didn't look back.
How many ways are there to tie the Chinese knot?
On the blackboard in the classroom behind, there is a huge Chinese ink hanging, covered with dust. It was made by a third-grade student. No one disassembled it and no one cleaned it. The tassels have turned grayish-yellow and the ropes have become slack.
One time during general cleaning, the squad leader said to take it off and throw it away.
The head teacher wouldn't let me.
She said that there were twenty-one knots in it, and each knot was a thought, and so was each one. It seems relatively easy to take this thing apart, but if you want to put it back, the difficulty has surpassed that of climbing to the sky, and it is much more difficult than climbing to the sky.
We don't believe it. She smiled and hung the Chinese knot upright again without wiping off the dust on it.
The afternoon sun shone in slantingly, and the loose Chinese knot suddenly turned a little red.
Is there really only one skin in a shadow puppet show?
I went to a temple fair and saw a shadow puppet stall at the temple fair. At that time, someone pulled a piece of white cloth away and hung up a light bulb. Then gongs and drums and other instruments made sounds, and figures on the cloth began to fight. Some figures were doing somersaults, others were fighting, and some stood up again after falling.
I turned to the back and took a look. The old man was as thin as his shadow puppet. He was holding two sticks in one hand and two sticks in the other hand. There was also a stick in his mouth. His hands were covered with calluses and the nails were dark. However, the general he held in his hand had a bright helmet and shining armor. He looked majestic. As soon as he picked up the gun, the children on the white cloth side all said "Wow" in unison.
After the performance, I touched the shadow puppet. It was hard and cool, just like a donkey skin.
The old man said that a piece of skin, plus light, plus people, constitute a play, and it is impossible to lack any one of them. The final punctuation mark is a period.
He looked at me again: "It won't work without you watching the show like this."
I wrote this down in my notebook, even though I didn’t quite understand it.
Why does the sugar painting have to be a dragon?
The old man who made the sugar paintings did not come to the temple fair this year. In previous years, he always stayed under the old locust tree. There was a smooth marble slab in front of him, and next to it was a small stove. In the copper pot, there was simmering syrup. Use a spoon to scoop up a spoonful, and make a shaking motion with your wrist, and the sugar strands will flow down, making a drawing on the stone slab. When it's hot, press the bamboo skewer on it, and after it's cool, use a shovel to gently pry it, and a transparent butterfly will fly into the child's hand.
He always said: "The most important thing in sugar painting is to be fast. If it is slow, it will solidify. If it solidifies, it will be useless."
I asked him why dragons were the most painted.
He said that it was because the dragon was the most difficult, as the sugar syrup had a high temperature, so you had to keep your hands steady and have the dragon in your heart. After the painting was completed, the children ran around the whole street holding the dragon. The sugar emits golden light under the sun, and it really looks like a vivid dragon.
This year, there is an empty space under the old locust tree. There are new young people who use molds to make sugar paintings. They can form a sugar painting by pressing it. It is fast and looks very similar.
But I always feel like something is missing.
Why do we need to post blessings during the Spring Festival?
I asked my Chinese teacher this question. She said: "Lucky has fallen, blessed has arrived, it's a homophonic pronunciation."
Then, I asked my grandma again. Grandma thought for a long time, and then said: "How could there be so many reasons? Everyone posted it, so we followed suit. If we didn't post it, we would feel uneasy inside."
She asked me to use the bench to post the words "福". I just put it upright, and my grandma shouted from below: "Pour it out and see if it exists."
I said I didn't fall down.
She said that the silly boy would fall down.
I took off the word "福" and put it on again with my head down. Grandma raised her head and looked at it for a long time, smiled and said, "This is correct."
When she smiled, the wrinkles on her face were squeezed together, like the word "福" upside down.
Will traditional culture be lost?
I have no idea.
I just know that after the puppet left, I tied a paper man with wool and imitated it by doing somersaults on the bedside. Turn it over once, and the thread is tangled; turn it over again, and the paper figure is torn. I sat on the bed, facing the pile of shredded paper, and suddenly remembered what the artist said - the more threads there are, the more they need to be loosened.
Maybe some things are just like that.
I clenched it so tightly that I couldn't move.
Just relax it and it will do a nice somersault on its own.
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