I don’t know exactly which year it started, and at that time of that year, the “busy energy” that originally lasted during the twelfth lunar month suddenly stopped.
The real Chinese New Year exists in memories. My mother found the shiny woven bag from the corner of the cabinet, and then took me to the New Year's Fair. The stall selling dishes and bowls was surrounded by people. She squatted there, holding the dishes up to the sun, tapping them with her fingers to hear the crisp sound. At that time, it took half an hour to buy a bowl, and the stall owner was not in a hurry and chatted about homely things.
What now?
New Year's goods can be delivered to your home at your fingertips. I bought the Spring Festival couplets from a certain store, and I was able to get them by relying on full discounts to put together the order. The lively scenes of steaming steamed buns, croquettes, and sweeping the house have all been replaced by pre-made dishes and sweeping robots. Many people say "Isn't it good to save trouble?" But what do we do with the little time we save? It’s just a different place to watch short videos.
The flavor of the year, who lost it?
A few days ago, I came across a hot search topic #traditional festivals are getting more and more boring#, and the comment area was very noisy. Some people said it was because they were poor, and some said it was because they were busy. However, I think the root cause is not here.
Some scholars have said it is extremely uncomfortable. The number of "one-person households" in modern society has exceeded 125 million, and large large families have been dismantled into independent individuals. The "differential pattern" discussed by Mr. Fei Xiaotong has been completely broken. The elderly in the family belong to the lifeline. Once the foundation is pulled away, the corresponding branches and leaves will inevitably scatter. The lively atmosphere that the traditional four generations should have under one roof is missing. Isn't the Spring Festival just a "change of place and sleep state".
But is it really all the fault of social structure?
On Tomb Sweeping Day, tomb-sweeping is reduced to "checking in and taking photos." When Dragon Boat Festival comes, it's just a matter of buying a box of rice dumplings, and dragon boat races can only be seen in the news. It is also difficult for us to escape from this connection. Some commentators mentioned that the "stuffing" has been removed from the festival, leaving only an empty shell. This statement is harsh and accurate.
Don’t just scold young people for “forgetting their ancestors”
Every time we talk about this, some people say that this generation of young people are ignorant. It's actually quite unfair.
Take a look at Shanxi temple fairs, they are extremely popular this year. Vinegar ice cream and sea buckthorn yogurt have young people queuing up to buy them; robots greet the new year on the beach, and drones spell out the appearance of the Jinhou bird statue in the night sky. In Sanya, the “post-00s generation” cooks the New Year’s Eve dinner, and the dumplings stuffed with spicy strips compete with the white-cut chicken.
It’s not that they don’t love tradition, it’s that they hate “prescribed” traditions.
Li Ziqi has become popular around the world. After Hanfu, one of the Chinese clothing styles, appeared in the public eye and attracted attention, it was always criticized as a "fancy dress". Young people want to express their love in their own unique way, but there will always be some people who come out and say this is "wrong" and "nondescript". After going back and forth like this a few times, I simply stopped playing.
What Sa Beining said is so good
He said, "We do not lack traditional culture, but we lack the eyes to discover it."
Mr. Feng Jicai had memories of his nanny. During the Spring Festival when he was four years old, his mother was preparing to return to her hometown. She personally led him to the Empress’ Palace and bought fish lanterns and painted faces. She also said that she would definitely come back before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, but later He never came back, but on the 30th night of the second year, someone brought a small basket. In the basket was a pig's head that the wet nurse had brought from the countryside, and the pig's head was dotted with red dots as big as dates.
Mr. Feng said that the flavor of the New Year is the warm emotion between people.
The sense of ritual cannot fool anyone.
Japan has Kimono Day, and South Korea has Hanbok Festival. Many people wear traditional costumes on the streets, and their eyes are full of natural pride. So what is the situation here? The shopping malls are more lively at Christmas than during the Spring Festival, and Halloween costume content frequently hits the screens in WeChat Moments.
It’s not that you can’t celebrate foreign festivals. The question is, after the fun is over, do you feel a little weak?
It was stated in an article that cultural identity in a practical sense does not rely on foreign festivals to fill in the gaps, but on the perseverance and confidence generated in every specific life situation. I firmly believe this statement.
In fact, it’s not difficult to get back the flavor of the New Year
The master from Shanxi who is engaged in Jiangzhou drum playing said: "As soon as the sound of gongs and drums is sounded, the breath of the year will float into people's hearts according to the rhythm of the drums."
Some netizens recalled that when they were young, they would cook meat in the twelfth lunar month. The house would be filled with the aroma of meat, and they would be so happy that they could hardly fall asleep at night. Isn’t that feeling of anticipation because we personally participated in the entire process?
This year, a friend of mine did something small. Before New Year’s Eve, she took a family together and asked each person to handwrite a piece of blessing. The handwriting was crooked and stained with ink. However, the moment she pressed the door against the door, her father suddenly said: "Hey, it feels a bit like when I was a child."
The roots of culture have actually never been broken
Some scholars have put it very well. Festivals are originally a time for generations to "immerse themselves in it collectively." When the sense of immersion is gone, life becomes dry.
Looking at the Guangdong area, there are some places where the "Little Dragon Boat Festival" is celebrated in May and the "Big Dragon Boat Festival" is celebrated on May 15th. The reason is that the news of Qu Yuan's death reached there relatively late. Such a non-standard festival is particularly vital because it exists in people's memories, not on the calendar.
After all, what do we miss about the busy work of the twelfth lunar month?
What we miss is the light in our mother's eyes when she picks up the bowl, our father's shout of "Left and right" when he puts up Spring Festival couplets, and the heartbeat of stepping quietly in the snow and waiting for the firecrackers to explode.
These things are actually not dead. They are just waiting for us to free our hands and pick them up again.
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