Traveling through 1942 with space

Chapter 200: Customs and Inheritance

The family had just played a few rounds of poker when they heard their friends shouting outside.

Chinese New Year is the favorite of children. When the little ones hear their friends calling them, they go out with melon seeds, peanuts and small firecrackers in their pockets.

Soon, the adults came in and called Hou Yangmin and his son to play cards at home.

Most people in the village stay up late by lighting a brazier during the New Year’s Eve, with the whole family staying together by the fire.

The candles lit by Hou Xiaoge's families provided lighting, so it naturally became the villagers' preferred gathering place.

But Hou Xiaoge's family was an orphan and a widow, so it was naturally not easy to treat a grown man well. Hou Yangmin's family had no wife to take care of them, so it was just right. So after a while, Hou Yangmin was taken home.

After the adults including uncle Erda and uncle-in-law left, a group of women came to Hou Xiaoge's house not long after. They took off their shoes and got on the kang, and drove away the boys including Hou Xiaoge.

Hou Xiaoge and the other boys didn't care anymore, so the battlefield moved directly to the cave where Hou Xiaoge and his brother slept, where they felt comfortable.

In a short while, the cave dwelling of the Hou Xiaoge and his brother was crowded with their friends. If Hou Xiaoge hadn’t been worried that the kang would collapse and not allow them to get on it, these guys would have filled the kang.

A bunch of young boys didn't have much money, and they didn't have the conditions to play poker and stick notes. They just hit their heads and rolled their arms to win.

Hou Xiaoge was afraid that these guys would start fighting while playing, so he directly contributed several kilograms of melon seeds and peanuts to let Ying win.

They played until three or four in the morning, when sporadic gunshots were heard outside, and the boys reluctantly went home.

The customs of the people in the Central Plains are different from those in Qin Province. Relatives do not gather together at night, but each family reunites on their own and only starts to pay New Year's greetings the next day.

However, ancestor worship has to start in the early morning, which is different from Qin Province.

But this year is different. The Central Plains suffered a famine and we are unable to go home to worship our ancestors. We can only hold a simple sacrifice at home.

At four or five o'clock in the morning, it was pitch black. Several families took out the newly made ancestral tablets from their uncle's house, and everyone kowtowed and knelt towards their hometown in the east.

"Dear ancestors, please go home with your children and grandchildren to celebrate the New Year!" Hou Yangmin burned incense towards the tablet, shouted, and led everyone to kowtow three times.

(The author is from Shaanxi and is not particularly familiar with the traditional seasons of Henan people. I will simply write about them. If I make any mistakes, please point them out to Henan compatriots.)

After bowing, burning paper and setting off firecrackers, the process is over and the next step is to visit each relative's home to wish them a happy new year.

This does not happen in Qin Province. People go to bed after setting off firecrackers, because they have already paid New Year's greetings on New Year's Eve. This shows the differences in customs in different places.

Hou Xiaoge was from Qin Province, so he naturally didn't understand these things. He just followed the crowd with his brothers.

"Uncle, Happy New Year! Your nephews wish you a happy new year." The first home they went to was Hou Yangmin's, and all the younger generations knelt down and kowtowed to wish you a happy new year.

Hou Xiaoge was a little embarrassed at first about kneeling down to pay New Year's greetings. After all, in his previous life in Qin Province, New Year's greetings were just kowtows, and at most they were kowtows to grandparents.

But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I got used to kneeling like that.

Hou Xiaoge also agrees with this custom. He thinks that this formal kowtow to wish a happy new year is better than simply saying "Happy New Year" and getting red envelopes is much better.

They are all the closest and closest relatives, and Hou Yangmin is not stingy with the New Year's red envelopes, giving each person 50 cents.

Don't underestimate these fifty cents. You should know that these days there are two more monetary units after "mao": fen and li.

The currency unit used by ordinary people is cents. Fifty cents can buy thirty or forty kilograms of sweet potatoes, which is considered a lot of money.

There were fourteen of the closest relatives, including his own children, and Hou Yangmin gave each of them fifty cents, which meant that the family had lost nearly half a month's income.

However, New Year’s money is a give-and-take thing, and the children will hand it over when they go back.

The four families didn't spend much when they visited each other to pay New Year's greetings. It was just that the children of each family got a little more advantage.

In fact, this matter is both unimportant and quite important. Hou Xiaoge remembered that in his previous life, several families in the village often quarreled about this.

Their family has few children, while other relatives have many children, so they lose money by visiting relatives every year, so they try hard to have children to make up for the loss.

After paying New Year’s greetings at home, the eldest uncle’s brothers took a group of younger generations to visit the home of the fifth uncle, who was within the five generations of kinship.

Hou Xiaoge followed behind, and soon a large group of people knelt down in the yard, at least sixty or seventy people.

Hou Xiaoge thought that with so many people, the old man would almost go bankrupt from all the New Year's gifts. ?

The leader was not the eldest uncle, but an uncle who was older than the eldest uncle.

Qi shouted to the old man: "Uncle, I wish you a happy new year! Please sit down, I will kowtow to you!"

The old man was sitting in a chair, smiling and nodding.

After he finished bowing, the old man smiled and said, "I've already said it. The ground is cold, stop bowing!"

?Everyone shouted in unison: "Once a year, kowtow once!"?

Hou Xiaoge found this kowtow ceremony very interesting and agreed with it. He believed it could increase the cohesion of the tribe members.

However, after the kowtow, it is impossible to give out red envelopes. Each child is given a handful of melon seeds, and each adult man is given a cheapest cigarette.

After the five generations of relatives have finished their kowtows, it is not over yet! Next, the whole clan will pay New Year's greetings.

In this way, after bowing to the relatives within the five degrees of mourning, the younger generations started from the village entrance, and kowtowed to each family to wish them a happy new year.

Dozens of families kowtowed by the time dawn came and their knees were all covered in yellow mud.

But no one was unhappy. They walked arm in arm and returned home with bags full of spoils, such as melon seeds and peanuts.

After paying New Year's greetings, Hou Xiaoge finally understood why China is called a country of etiquette. This is inheritance.

The first day of the New Year is a day for shopping and eating. After having breakfast and taking a nap, everyone starts walking around the streets and playing.

The children in the village now have more or less pocket money, and they go to the market near the city gate in groups, arm in arm, to buy their favorite food and firecrackers.

Of course, there are also diligent ones, like Yangwa and many other families. After paying New Year’s greetings early in the morning, they carry sticks of candied haws to the market to sell them. After all, business is good during the New Year!

Normally, days like the Chinese New Year should last until the 15th day of the lunar year, but it is families like Yangwa's that have set a bad example.

Fortunately, there are not many relatives to visit in Nanjiagou now, at most there are dozens of relatives and friends outside the village.

So when the workshop in the village started operating on the second day of the Chinese New Year, everyone started to work hard as they had too much money to spend.

After all, as the saying goes, it’s easy to make money during the Chinese New Year.

In this way, men, women, old and young in Majiagou carried sticks of candied haws and boxes of hawthorn snowballs and shouted and sold them everywhere near Chang'an City.

By the tenth day, all the goods of all villagers except the public workshops were sold out in the village, and the country was finally at peace.

Of course, every household has at least made some money in the past few days, which they couldn’t make in the past half month.

"Uncle, the children in the village are all idle. We can't keep doing this. The village has money now. Can we set up a school?" On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, Hou Xiaoge came to the village kiln to find his uncle and said.