Meng Yan's Transformation

After Yunqing prepared the offerings, she started making fried snacks. Mix the dough. Roll it into dough sheets, and then cut it into squares. Yingying's task was to turn the small squares over one by one. Zhanyu put the reversed dough sheets into the boiling oil pan one by one until the white dough sheets turned golden and dazzling, and the aroma was fragrant. He picked one up and gave it to Xiao Mengyan, who was standing by the pot. Xiao Mengyan broke it upside down with her left and right hands, and couldn't wait to taste it. She shouted with satisfaction, "It's delicious!" This pot of fried fruit can be taken out of the pot. After being taken out and cooled, it is the fried fruit snack for Zhanyu's family during the Spring Festival.

Yunqing's secret to making fried fruit cakes extra crispy is to boil lard in boiling water overnight until it becomes crispy and soft. The next day, the lard is used to mix the dough. The fried fruit cakes such as rings, thousand pieces, and pages are extra crispy.

At noon, we start eating, also called afternoon lunch. If we eat at this time, we will not eat at night, but eat dumplings at midnight. In order to ensure that they can stay up all night, the adults in the village usually let the children sleep first. Some children will also find friends to play with first. In short, they try to find time to rest before dark.

At lunch, Yunqing cooked pheasant stewed with mushrooms. The mushrooms were picked by Xiao Mengyan and Ziqiang on the meadow in the summer when they were herding pigs, and then dried. The pheasant was caught by Ziqiang and "Huang Heihu" in the back mountain. They also cooked meat fried with garlic sprouts, braised carp, braised pork slices, pot-wrapped pork, large pulled noodles, braised wild rabbit, stir-fried snowbird, etc. The main dish was "oil shuttle" pancakes with brown sugar as the filling. Ziqiang ate eight in one breath, and finally recovered his original appetite before the serious illness.

Night falls, and it is time for every family to welcome the gods. "Jie Shen" means to welcome the gods, that is, to welcome the ancestors of one's family home for the New Year. The place to welcome the gods is at the crossroads in the village. When you go to welcome the gods, you need to carry a lantern, a pinch of incense and some paper money. After arriving at the crossroads, light the incense and stick it in the snow. Then burn the paper. Then kneel down and kowtow to the southwest, chanting: "The ancestors are home for the New Year." Then get up, carry the lanterns, and take the children back. No talking is allowed on the way back, probably to avoid disturbing the ancestors, to show respect...

After meeting the ancestors, the children in the village carried their beloved lanterns to the "big skating rink" in the village. The "big skating rink" was originally a place where pigs were gathered when Zhan Ziqiang released them for the production team and each household in spring and summer. In winter, the children poured water on it to make it a big ice rink. The children skated on the ice rink holding lanterns, chasing and playing with each other, and their laughter resounded over the Aobao Team 4...

There is a common saying in the Great Northern Wilderness: "Every family celebrates the New Year with dumplings", which is enough to prove that dumplings are an indispensable food in the New Year customs of the Great Northern Wilderness.

Dumplings are also called "jiaozi". They are usually made on New Year's Eve and eaten at midnight, which is the beginning of the first day of the first lunar month. Eating dumplings means "changing the year and handing over the money". Jiao and jiao are homophones, which gradually evolved into dumplings. Dumplings are shaped like ingots, and eating dumplings during the Spring Festival also expresses people's hope of bringing in wealth.

When making dumplings, people often put peanuts, candies, dates or coins into the dumpling fillings. For those who eat candies, the next year will be sweeter, for those who eat peanuts, it means longevity, for those who eat dates, they will give birth to a son soon, and for those who eat coins, they will make a fortune. Speaking of this, Li Ersao gave birth to two girls in a row. She asked a fortune teller who said that if she ate dumplings from five families on New Year's Eve, she would give birth to a boy. So Li Erge and Li Dage pretended to visit other people's houses and went out to "steal" dumplings on New Year's Eve.

Yunqing mixed the dumpling stuffing, and the whole family sat around the dining table to make dumplings together. Little Mengyan sat in the arms of her third brother Zifeng and learned to make dumplings with him. Her tender little hands and serious look were very cute. After breaking seven or eight dumpling skins, Little Mengyan finally made the first perfect Yuanbao dumpling in her life.

The whole family puts the wrapped dumplings on the lid curtain, and arranges them in six horizontal and six vertical rows, which means everything goes well. Then they are arranged in circles, but the circle cannot be sealed and must leave an opening. It means that the family is communicating with people outside. The family is not "disgraced", and some places should be wrapped with folds, which means that the family lives a fulfilling life. In addition, you have to sit still and check the dumplings in detail. It is said that this is to avoid being calculated by villains. When someone's dumplings are boiled and broken, you cannot say "they are boiled", you have to say "they are boiled well". When the dumplings are about to be cooked and float up, you cannot say "they are floating", but "they are rising". You can even find a boy to stand on the top of the quilts and jump while shouting "the life is rising".

At midnight, the dumplings were cooked. They could not be eaten immediately after they were cooked. They had to be offered as sacrifices before welcoming the gods. Zifeng, Ziqiang, and Zian went outside to set off firecrackers to welcome the God of Wealth, the God of Fortune, the God of Road, and the God of Joy. After setting off the firecrackers, they returned to the house. The whole family started to eat dumplings together, and heated up the leftover dishes from lunch and served them on the table.

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, everyone played poker to stay up till the New Year.

One thing that is indispensable for staying up on New Year's Eve is "eating frozen pears". Frozen pears are fruit pears that are frozen outdoors. The more frozen the better. The surface is black and sticky in the hand. It looks bad, but it tastes very good. The frozen pear and the fruit are definitely two different flavors.

"Eating frozen pears" is a New Year custom in the Great Northern Wilderness. There are also sayings. First, eating frozen pears means good fortune, which can bring in a lot of money and a harmonious family. Second, eating frozen pears on the day of the beginning of spring or on New Year's Eve is called "eating spring". It means that you will be refreshed and healthy all year round. In addition, if you stay up all night on New Year's Eve, you will feel refreshed if you eat a cold frozen pear when you are sleepy.

There are two ways to eat frozen pears. One is to "bite frozen pears". Take the frozen pears from outside to indoors to thaw for one or two hours. When eating, wash off the white frost on the surface of the frozen pears and put them directly in your mouth. At this time, only the surface of the frozen pears has melted. Although it is no longer hard, it is very chewy. It requires good teeth and is also a test for the stomach, because it is hard to bite and cold to swallow. Most people can't stand it. The second way to eat is to get a basin of cold water, then put all the frozen pears in the water, slow it down for one or two hours, and then you can fish out the frozen pears. When you fish out the frozen pears, the whole frozen pear is wrapped in ice. Break the ice on the edge of the basin, wash the surface of the pear, put it in your mouth and take a bite. It is cool and soft, and your mouth is full of sweet pear juice. It is really refreshing!

Mengyan doesn't like to eat hard or soft food, so she created her own unique way of eating: wash the frozen pears that have been left to cool for about an hour, cut them into strips with a knife, and slowly suck them in her mouth, feeling the coolness and the sweetness...