Chapter Seventy: Winter Festival (Seeking Collection Seeking Recommendation Seeking Evaluation)

  Song Wen stood in the parking lot, waving goodbye to his mother and the group of people she had brought with her.

  On this day, he felt more tired than if he had spent a whole year. Not to mention his mother, but Guo Chunhua held his hand and asked him questions one after another, almost digging out all the life he had lived outside in these years. His mother was also on the side asking and making trouble, making his forehead almost smoke.

  Song Hu's parents-in-law and his elder sister-in-law were standing aside with the children, pretending to be nonchalant, but he knew they had been bursting into laughter in their hearts.

  They say three women make a play, but that's referring to three young girls who haven't come of age. A woman of her mother's age is not just one play, she has several plays already.

  The workers who installed streetlights have gone back. Tens of streetlights can't be installed in one day, it's estimated that they will need to install for several more days.

  He was dragged by Amu and others to talk all day, until he didn't know what he was saying anymore, anyway it was all muddled up, his head was spinning from their questions, so he simply went back to the house, closed the door and slept.

  Before you know it, it's Winter Solstice again.

  Winter Solstice, also known as "Dong Jie" in Southern Fujian, is one of the 24 solar terms and a very traditional festival. In ancient times, both government offices and civilians attached great importance to it, with winter solstice worship activities starting from the Zhou Dynasty.

  "In the 'Spring Officials' chapter of the Zhou Li, it is recorded: 'On the winter solstice, sacrifices are made to the heavenly gods and ancestral spirits.' This means that people worship heaven, earth, ancestors, and gods to pray for a good harvest, eliminate epidemics in the country, reduce famine and death among the people. The 'Book of Later Han: Rites and Ceremonies' also records: 'Before and after the winter solstice, gentlemen calm their bodies and minds, and officials cease all activities.' On this day, talented scholars are selected to play the zither and blow the sheng, playing the music of the Yellow Bell, to celebrate."

  The Book of Jin also records that "on the winter solstice, the Wei and Jin dynasties received congratulations from all countries and officials... The ceremony was similar to that of the first day of the year." By the Tang and Song dynasties, the Winter Solstice had become as important as New Year's Day.

  In the "Dreams of Splendor of the Eastern Capital" by Meng Yuanlo of the Southern Song Dynasty, it is written: "On the eleventh month's winter solstice. The capital attaches great importance to this festival, even the poorest people, throughout the year, accumulate and borrow, until this day they change into new clothes, prepare food and drink, and offer sacrifices to their ancestors. Officials are released from their duties, and congratulations and visits go back and forth, just like on New Year's Day."

  By the Ming and Qing dynasties, emperors had a grand ceremony to worship heaven, known as "Winter Solstice Suburban Temple". In the palace, there was a ceremony where officials presented congratulatory tablets to the emperor, and they also exchanged gifts of congratulations, just like on New Year's Day. However, among the people, Winter Solstice was not considered a festival, although there were some seasonal activities.

  Just like in Minnan, on Dongzhi day, people must cook red sugar glutinous rice balls, called "Winter Festival Balls".

  Early in the morning, Song Wen got up and rode a motorcycle to the town to buy some beef. Then he returned to Songjiabao and made dumplings with XiXi together.

  In Minnan, there are two types of "Dongzhiyuan", one is sweet and the other is salty.

  Sweet is used for worshiping gods, ancestors, land and stove god.

  In the morning, his mother had already made the glutinous rice balls for worship and had cooked them with red sugar. The remaining glutinous rice balls were to be kneaded and eaten at noon.

  The Dongzhi Festival glutinous rice balls in Minnan are made from glutinous rice.

  In the past, glutinous rice was soaked and softened, then ground into a pulp with a stone mill. The mixture was then filtered through a cloth bag to remove excess water, leaving behind the glutinous rice dough used to make tangyuan for the Winter Solstice Festival. Nowadays, using machines to grind is much more convenient than before. Some people don't even use glutinous rice to grind, but instead use glutinous rice flour mixed with water and kneaded. Although this method is more convenient, it seems that the tangyuan made from glutinous rice flour doesn't taste as good as those made from grinding glutinous rice into a pulp, lacking the same smooth texture.

  In Minnan, the winter solstice balls are very interesting. No matter how many are made, there must be two that are larger than the others, which everyone calls "Yuan Gong" and "Yuan Mu". Song Wen still doesn't know why they have to do it this way and can't figure it out.

  The winter solstice dumplings to be worshiped must be cooked with brown sugar, and then worship the gods, ancestors, land, and stove king. After the worship is completed, the two largest "round father and round mother" are pasted in front of the stove god image. In the past, they were also pasted on the gate, windows, cabinets, beds, chairs, poultry houses, livestock houses, etc., but now there are fewer, and most people put them in their own belly after worshiping.

  During the Winter Festival, there is a rule for playing with tangyuan: you can't count them. As soon as children start counting, adults will scold them, saying that after counting, their faces will have white "tangyuan marks".

  Song Wen had also been trained before, so later when he saw a round white mark on someone's face, he thought it was a Winter Festival circular mark that had appeared, until later he found out it wasn't the case. This made him nervous every time he counted circular marks in the past, afraid that a white mark would suddenly appear on his face.

  Xi Xi is a good kid, diligently following Song Wen's instructions to knead small round dumplings. This is mainly because Song Wen said that if he does a good job, he will be rewarded with braised beef and small round dumplings to eat; otherwise, he would have run off to play long ago.

  In winter, the weather is cold, and beef has the effect of tonifying the spleen and stomach, benefiting Qi, and strengthening muscles and bones. Today is Dongzhi Festival, so eating beef balls is the most suitable choice.

  The roundness of beef balls should not be too big, only as small as a thumb, otherwise it will not taste good.

  Lin Qinglan saw her son Xi Xi and younger brother-in-law Song Wen rubbing the small round thing, she felt very amused, so she washed her hands and also came to help.

  After a while, Xiaoyuanzi had kneaded a large heap.

  Song Wen took the small round thing to the kitchen. First, he chopped up the beef they had bought and mixed it with potato starch, then boiled the small round thing in hot water until it was cooked through. Next, he added the chopped beef and cooked it until it was done, seasoning it with a savory sauce that was neither too thick nor too thin. Finally, he added some fried shallots, chopped scallions, and pepper powder, and this dish of beef small round thing was complete. It tasted extremely delicious, with a rich rural flavor.

  The winter festival was not enough to eat, and rice was still cooked at noon. After dinner, Song Wen returned to the mountain.

  It's been more than half a month in the blink of an eye.

  That old plum blossom branch brought back from Qiao's family has already begun to show signs of new life.

  Seven days ago, Song Wen had already replanted it in a pot and insisted on giving it an intravenous drip every day. Now, the old plum blossom's roots have sprouted new life, and many more root hairs have grown out. Also, I don't know if it's because of this, but new leaves have grown on the branches of the old plum blossom, and small flower buds have emerged, with some places even growing new branches.

  Song Wenhui didn't know if this was a good phenomenon or not, he just felt it was too strange.

  More than half a month ago, this was still a dying old tree stump. Now it has become the same as before, and even more vibrant than before. If you say there's no trick to it, nobody will believe you.

  The long leaves and flower buds sprouting new branches are not bad, but they make people feel a bit eerie. It seems that it's not very good to leave them like this. Song Wen thought, should he remove these leaves and flower buds? After thinking about it, he decided to leave them alone, maybe after a month, the flowers will wither and the leaves will fall too? Who knows.

  Seeing that the old plum blossom had thoroughly come back to life, Song Wen took down the still-hanging infusion bottle from the branch, then walked back into the house to fetch a hoe and headed outside.

  On the right side of the small courtyard, not far from the wooden bridge over the stream, there is a piece of wasteland with weeds and low shrubs growing all over it. On this wasteland stand two or three stalks of bamboo that stretch out from the nearby bamboo forest.

  It's already winter, and most of the weeds on the wasteland have withered, leaving only a few still green. The leaves of the low shrubs have also fallen off, but a cluster of "Mao Shen Hua" is still in full bloom with delicate flowers. (In Minnan dialect, "Mao Shen" means madman.)

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