Siheyuan: Starting from Building a Village

The sound of firecrackers bids farewell to the old year, and the laughter and joy welcome the new year.

“Bang…Bang…”

As soon as it was daybreak, everyone got up. Some people did not sleep at all. The first thing they did was to rush to fire the "opening cannon". The gong struck at three o'clock in the morning and the cannons went off in succession, which meant good luck in the new year and also announced the start of the new year.

"Uncle Lou, Happy New Year."

"Uncle Yang, Happy New Year."

"Uncle Jiang, Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year, Aunt Niu."

"..."

Liu Guo was standing at the entrance of the cafeteria, greeting everyone one by one.

"Brother Zheng, I'm starting to let go."

Li Dabao led the children and prepared to set off firecrackers. They bought firecrackers with 10,000 bangs, but the actual effect was not very ideal. It was said that someone specially disassembled and counted them and found that there were actually only more than 4,000 firecrackers marked as 10,000 bangs, which was a serious reduction in number.

After the firecrackers, the canteen started making dumplings.

When celebrating the New Year in the north, people must get up early to eat dumplings. They will also prepare a bowl of meat in advance, as well as steamed buns and dumplings. Regardless of whether people eat them or not, they will be heated up.

In fact, when people get up early on New Year's Eve, they are basically not hungry. The main reason is that the food at the New Year's Eve dinner is so delicious, and there are plenty of snacks to eat while staying up late at night. Even if they sleep, they only sleep for two or three hours. They get up very early, so they are definitely not hungry.

But dumplings must be eaten. On this special day of the first day of the Lunar New Year, eating dumplings means welcoming the arrival of the new year, saying goodbye to the past and welcoming a brand new beginning.

After dinner, they started visiting each other and running to wish everyone a happy new year.

In the north, you need to kowtow when you wish your elders a happy new year. This is one of the traditional etiquettes, which includes kneeling on the ground, supporting the ground with both hands, and keeping your head close to or touching the ground.

This kind of etiquette is not only a physical action, but also an expression of inner feelings, symbolizing respect and awe for elders and traditional culture. The most popular in later generations is the Spring Festival greetings in Shandong Province, which can be described as spectacular.

I hope the new village is also prepared to continue this tradition.

It had been agreed long ago that there are three generations in the village, old, middle-aged and young. Yang Youde, Lou Zhenhua and others who are over 40 or 50 years old are considered the first generation.

Li Xiangdong, Lao San, Liu Guozheng, Erleng and others are the second generation.

The third generation consists of children such as Liu Xiaolong, Liu Xiaohu, Zhou Meili, and Zhou Yali.

As for kowtow and New Year greetings, each generation must have a leader, who is the oldest person in that generation.

For collective New Year greetings, the elders, regardless of gender, just sit down and wait for the younger generations to come and pay their New Year greetings.

Of Liu Guozheng's generation, Li Xiangdong is the oldest, so naturally Li Xiangdong took the lead, kneeling, and kowtowing to wish a happy new year (as for the steps of kowtowing, I won't write them down, if I can save the words, I won't waste them.)

The oldest person in the third generation is Liu Xiaolong, so naturally Liu Xiaolong would lead the group in greeting the elders.

Looking at the people kneeling in front of them, many people shed tears of happiness. Whether it was from Liu Guozheng and his friends or from the children, they once again felt the warmth and happiness of family.

Although they are not related by blood, their hearts are together at this moment.

The whole village is one big family.

A big happy family.

After the kneeling, Yang Youde, Lou Zhenhua and others smiled and began to give red envelopes to the children. Everyone received one, with the same amount, without any bias. The main purpose was to enjoy the atmosphere of the New Year.

Naturally, Liu Guozheng also prepared red envelopes specifically for the children. He was not short of money anyway. Besides, giving out red envelopes felt good and festive.

After this series of events, the sky became completely bright.

During the New Year in the 1950s and 1960s, there was no television to watch, no smartphones, and naturally no online games to play. So there was basically nothing to do. Some people would go back to sleep, while others would get together to play cards to kill time.

As for temple fairs, people can't even get enough food to eat these days, so how can there be temple fairs? It is said that most of the temple fairs have been discontinued since the 1960s.

If you are in the inner city, you can go shopping together, especially to a department store. It doesn't matter whether you buy anything or not, you just want to have some fun.

I hope that the new village won't work, so we can go to Sijiucheng together. This is unrealistic, mainly because the distance is a bit far and there are no good means of transportation. There are only a few bicycles and tricycles in the village, which are not very useful.

Before the Spring Festival, Liu Guozheng had already decided to hold a table tennis competition starting on the first day of the new year, and everyone must participate.

The competition is divided into senior group, youth group and junior group. The top three will receive rewards, which can be regarded as motivating everyone.

Liu Guozheng believed that even if there was no reward, they would still participate enthusiastically. It would be better for everyone to have fun together than to sleep in the house on the first day of the New Year, right?

The rules are very simple. Everyone will play a game with someone other than themselves. Every two people play three games. The one who wins two games wins and gets one point.

Finally, the top three will be determined based on the scores.

As for rewards, for adults it can be a pack of good cigarettes, a deck of playing cards, or a pair of shoes, it basically depends on personal needs.

It’s even simpler for children. A piece of candy, a workbook and a pen are the best rewards.

This morning we prepared for the competition for the senior and youth groups, with the children cheering on the sidelines.

People like Yang Youde and Lou Zhenhua basically don't know how to do it and can't even serve the ball. We can only let them practice in the morning and then compete in the afternoon.

The youth group competition was held in the morning. As long as one was young, they could participate, regardless of gender. There weren’t many people to begin with.

I really didn't expect that the "competition" would be so effective. The intense and thrilling competition made people excited, and the children's cheers made us feel like we were in a grand celebration.

Of course, this intense and tense competition was mainly between Lou Xiaoe, Li Xiujuan and Chen Xiaolan. They all had attended junior high school and high school, so naturally they knew how to play table tennis.

Forget about the others, it’s already pretty good if they can play two rounds. These people also include Liu Guozheng. Among all sports, Liu Guozheng only knows how to play badminton and he can’t play any other.

The top three in the youth group were Chen Xiaolan, Lou Xiaoe and Li Xiujuan.

When asked what prizes they wanted, they actually kept asking Liu Guozheng to find some financial books for them.

This was something Liu Guozheng had not expected.

Now that their request has been made, it must be met.

Being willing to learn is definitely a good thing.