Guest things
There are only two kinds of guest things between farmers, weddings and funerals, whether it is the four words wedding or funeral, or the four words wedding, wedding, and happy event, They all hide the funeral quietly among the happy events, as if they are deliberately avoiding and not wanting to express it, but it is indeed a big thing among the guests. Apart from these two things, the farmers don't have that kind of thing. A big gathering, a big gathering of guests.
The gray-haired old woman was sitting on a stone by the roadside, talking softly to the woman who came from the river. The adults next to her were passing by with baskets on their backs, nodding and saying hello before going up. , children were running next to them, their sharp, lively sounds constantly moving with the running footsteps.
"...twenty-four...sixteen..." These are the only two numbers that children can understand during the conversation between the two elderly people in Yi dialect. The children cannot understand them at all. Listen and speak Yi dialect.
It is a kind of intimate communication, and it seems to be the release and expression of some kind of backlog of thoughts deep in the heart. Both the speaker and the listener use words that can be understood by each other to listen and express each other. As I get older, I no longer care about whether the other party is the person closest to me and someone I can fully inform. The similar age, similar accumulation of emotions and mutual communication of language have reached a certain tacit understanding deep in the heart. , you just talk and I just listen. Later, the listener will also ask a few questions. Are you ready? Where is my uncle from? Several members of the family...the speaker went on to reveal all the entangled interactions between the wedding ceremony and the dowry. Whether it was resentment or dissatisfaction, they all expressed and poured out their feelings directly and without any concealment.
The sun turned to the west, and the speaker felt relieved, and the listener seemed to be very satisfied with being needed. This satisfaction included the other person's trust in him and his understanding of the past, as well as his own empathy. Then they both walked home.
For two or three years, my mother was the one who had important responsibilities in weddings. They often worked in groups of three and were responsible for cooking the rice at weddings. Estimate the amount of rice needed and notify the cook in advance to make preparations. At this time, the steamers are borrowed from different people. They clean, arrange them, soak the rice, boil water, boil the rice, let it rise, and drain the rice soup. Pour in the steamer, add firewood, turn on the steam, and take it out of the pot when every piece of rice is cooked. During this period, the steward came to check on the cooking status of the rice, picked up the porcelain bowl, scooped out half a bowl of rice soup and drank it while it was hot, and then continued to remind and advise according to the time progress.
"Her third uncle and third sister will get married on the 24th of next month. Then they will come to the house for a wedding drink."
This is how the farmers' happy events go to the main room to tell the master one by one. family, and then the children passed it on to each other according to the time notified by the host.
"Third sister is getting married on the 24th."
"Third sister's father also came to my house to tell me."
"Third sister is marrying the one above. It’s not far from the village.”
The wedding date is usually decided in advance, and the host family notifies each relative in advance according to the time. It would take ten days and a half to treat guests. In the days when transportation was not so convenient and vehicles were not so frequent, it was necessary to go out early and walk along the mountain road for a whole morning to get there. Of course, there were also relatives who could not get there. When walking to the market, it is common to ask people coming from the same direction to bring a message.
The day is approaching, and relatives and friends have also been invited. How many people will come, and how many distant relatives will live there. Once the numbers come out, it is the preparation stage. Of course, the preparation here is not just for the happy event. Pots and pans to use, vegetables and fruits to eat, and bedding and luggage needed for distant relatives to stay.
Ordinary farmers don’t have much idle luggage at home, especially those of mistresses who are very budget-conscious. They are well prepared for everything, but few are well prepared. In their opinion, Most of the things that were prepared were wasted, so another item was added to the preparation process, which was to borrow unused blankets, beddings, and pillows from neighbors. After the work was over, they were cleaned and returned one by one. Neighbors’ homes. Slowly, no matter who is celebrating a happy event, all kinds of pots, pans, tables, chairs and benches seem to be a complete set, but they are just hidden in different people's homes when nothing happens.
To give gifts to guests, put rice at the bottom of the basket, bottles of liquor, drinks, and round brown sugar wrapped in sugar cane leaves on the top. As for the quantity, it only needs to be an even number. This is a common gift between neighbors. of ceremony. These things are usually sent to the owner's house early by the adults for accounting. The children only need to change into clean clothes and wait until the firecrackers sound for dinner. Is there any difficulty in being a guest without such guests? I never felt that the half-year-old child who was carrying a small army green kettle filled with white wine, huddled behind and never went to the accounting office. Why is it so difficult, and I don’t know what worries the third sister’s father has about sitting in the corner of the courtyard holding a bottle of beer, watching the guests laughing, listening to the suona playing, and raising the bottle alone to drink heavily.
In the child's world, the platter is very beautiful, the waiter ate the cherry on it, the candy is very sweet, and the bride's curly hair hanging down on her temples is so beautiful...
Disperse When the guests arrived, all the gift baskets were taken out and placed in the courtyard, containing even numbers of wedding candies, cigarettes, and cakes, as a courtesy.
The third sister was not married far away. When they met at the farm field, the children still called her by her original name from a distance, loudly and cleanly: "Third Sister." The third brother-in-law on the side did not wait for the children to call him, but directly took over the conversation and asked: Where are you going? The children then answered, and then returned to the third sister, where is the third sister going? The third sister is going to go to the market or not... The third sister then replies: The younger sister has grown taller, the older sister is becoming more and more capable, it’s time for Uncle A Dong to cut his hair... The same ordinary people, however, were greeted by the third sister. It seemed like they were from two different generations, and the third brother-in-law beside him couldn't answer these calls.
Happy events are well-prepared guest events. There are many arrangements at the beginning and end of the year, but funerals are different. The suddenness and lack of preparation often catch people off guard.
The funeral seemed to be not a simple guest event for one family, but a matter for a village. Everyone was involved. Some people went to the old gentleman to find out the date of the funeral, and some were entrusted by the host to go to the other side of the mountain. The village informed a relative of what happened here, and then invited the wooden fish knockers and suona players to come over. People nearby who had no time to notify could also hear what happened here from the farmers coming and going as soon as the firecrackers from the host's house went off. , so people who usually help each other hurriedly rested their dishes and went to the host's house in search of the sound of firecrackers.
Usually there are not many children at the funeral. One is happy and the other is mourning. They are two extremes. As much joy as there is at the wedding, there will be more restraint at the funeral. Therefore, those children who are arranged at home in a disciplined manner , apart from hearing the non-stop sound of suona all day long, the sound of wooden fish at night, and the sound of firecrackers set off by distant relatives when they arrive, it is not clear what kind of ceremony is arranged in that courtyard, how the people in the courtyard are sad and shed tears, they The only thing I saw was the white cloth wrapped around the heads of the people who came out to help at the funeral, and the only thing I heard was the appearance of the people who came to see him off.
"Sister A-Zhen is here, carrying a basket of green vegetables and saying it is a little bit of her kindness."
This is what Sister A-Zhen said to the deceased grandpa. A way of sending off, a small contribution to my grandpa’s legacy.
It has just passed the beginning of spring, and the temperature is not gentle at all. Sister Azhen is wearing indigo blue pants that have been washed white. The knees protrude outwards, and the patchwork of a rectangular piece of fabric also looks old. The hems of the trousers were frayed, and the threads had fallen down into a small handful. The cloth shoes on the feet were wet, and the toes were protruding outwards.
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The host held his arm and chased her all the way to the door.
Her teeth were all gone, she could not speak clearly, and her hair had long since lost all traces of dust. The owner could not keep her and watched her leave.
Sister Azhen, like a name, represents Sister Azhen herself. If strictly speaking according to seniority, she would be called sister-in-law, or aunt, but the children still call her Sister Azhen, so Just like she doesn't want to call her third sister sister-in-law.
Her name is Sister Azhen.
"Sister Azhen doesn't eat meat, she only eats eggs."
"Sister Azhen ate three eggs when she gave birth to Ah San, and she had nothing to eat."
"Sister Azhen was cutting the grass on the ridge of the field. She cut the cauliflower snake curled up in the middle into two pieces with a scythe. She was not afraid at all."
"My mother please Sister-in-law A-Zhen came to the house to help her and found out in advance what she would eat and what she would not eat. In the end, she didn’t eat much, and she didn’t even take the thank-you gift she prepared for her. She said that the meal was enough to show her gratitude.”
Sister Azhen’s house has been built for many years. The pillars support the top beams, rafters and tiles. Apart from blocking the sun and rain, they seem to have no role in protecting against wind and cold. Standing in the yard She was busy greeting and talking to acquaintances passing by outside the hospital.
In wedding venues and funeral venues, the same people come and gather, and people leave and disperse.
Under the warm sunshine of the afternoon, the old granny and grandma were leaning against the wall, talking in Yi dialect that they could understand each other. The children nestling beside them listened quietly. Sometimes the two spoke with some hatred, sometimes with some dissatisfaction, and sometimes they nodded to express some approval and relief. Occasionally when they talked about something intense, tears flowed down, and the snot also flowed down while holding back, and they blew it with their bare hands. After wiping the child on the stone pier by the roadside, the child next to him looked up, and Grandma immediately scolded the child uprightly: "Don't touch the mud with your hands. If you don't obey, you will be beaten."
The child got up and ran away.
The two of them turned around and continued talking in understandable languages.
When the adults passed by, they raised their heads and explained to themselves, I will sit with grandma for a while, sit for a while.
…A-Zhen…A-Zhen…