Splendid peasant girl busy farming

Ghost Festival

"I'm thinking, if any of the three of them come back, forget it. If none of them come back, after the Ghost Festival, my fourth child and I will go to White Goose Town to see where the three of them are now. The whole thing."

"Don't come up with some other moths one day, and implicate our entire Old Yang family!"

Yang Ruoqing was the first to respond: "Father, take me with you when the time comes. I haven't been to White Goose Town yet, so I'll go there to see the swans."

……

In a blink of an eye, it's Halloween.

Ghost Festival, a traditional festival of Qi State, is also the "Hungry Yuan Festival" in the "Three Yuan" festival of the year.

The saying of Hungry Ghost Festival comes from Taoism.

Among the gods of Taoism, there is the "Three Officials", namely the Heavenly Official, the Earth Official, and the Water Official.

Heavenly officials bless the world on the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, local officials forgive sins on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and water officials relieve misfortunes on October fifteenth.

The folk saying is that every year during the Ghost Festival, the gates of ghosts are wide open, and ghosts with owners go home to enjoy offerings, while lonely ghosts without owners will also come up to wander around the world, wandering around to see if they can't pick up the missing ones.

On this day, Taoist priests will recite scriptures, celebrate the birthday of the local officials, save the ghosts, pray for the blessings of the ancestors, and ask the local officials to forgive their sins.

Among them, the most classic story is the legend of "Mulian saves his mother".

Mulian is one of the top ten disciples of Sakyamuni. His mother committed sins and died, and then fell into the realm of hungry ghosts to suffer.

Relying on being a disciple of the Buddha and possessing supernatural powers, Mu Lian tried to help his mother overcome difficulties with magic power. As a result, the food fed to her mother's mouth could not be eaten at all, and it all turned into flames, causing her mother to scream again and again. , Painful, Mulian is a filial son, so naturally he is also grieving and blaming himself.

Later, he turned to his master Sakyamuni for help, and got his enlightenment. If he wanted to save his mother, he must first resolve his sins.

Therefore, on the [-]th day of the seventh month every year, Mulian used a variety of delicacies and fruits to make offerings to the monks of the ten directions.

Therefore, the Hungry Ghost Festival on July [-] is different from the Ching Ming Festival, which only sacrifices to ancestors. The Hungry Ghost Festival also prepares food for the lonely souls and wild ghosts of all parties.

Therefore, for farmers like Yang Huazhong and the others, the annual Hungry Ghost Festival is a grand festival second only to New Year's Eve, and they dare not neglect it in the slightest.

Yang Huazhong prepared the things to be used for the sacrifice in advance, and Sun started to cook the offerings early in the morning, and the couple were very busy.

Tan Shi and Yang Huamei also came to celebrate the festival with them.

Sitting in the main room, Mrs. Tan was drinking tea leisurely, listening to Yang Huazhong beating paper money with wooden seals, while Yang Huamei was sitting beside her folding ingots with tinfoil in her hands, and the ingots were folded like boats and placed together. .

After Yang Huazhong knocked out rows of round marks representing copper plates on straw paper, he began to pack them into paper bags.

Each paper bag contains the same share of paper money, ingots, and finally sealed with rice paste.

He was picking up a pen, the tip of the brush was stained with ink, and he wrote each word on the paper bag, slowly writing down which ancestor this paper bag will be sent to, his (her) name, death...

At the same time, in the Luo family hall across the wall, Blacksmith Luo was also doing the same thing with Luo Baobao.

One of Yang Ruoqing and Wang Cuilian's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was responsible for cooking the offerings, while the other brought the freshly mixed rice paste to the main room and helped them seal the paper bags together.

Blacksmith Luo couldn't read, so the words on the paper bags were all written by Luo Baobao, and he read them.

The grandfather and grandson cooperated tacitly, and Luo Baobao's delicate, restrained and sharp words were neatly written on the paper bag.

Yang Ruoqing looked sideways at the bulging paper bags, and suddenly thought of express delivery.

I don't know if the ancestors at the other end can really receive these things, but this is the comfort of the living.

In this ancient times, rich people would burn paper money, sedan horses, terraces, courtyards, and servant girls when they were exhausted.

In modern times, there are many tricks.

A complete set of home appliances, the latest Apple mobile phone, beauties in fragrant cars, certain treasures, even sea view villas, luxury yachts, and a long string of zero banknotes issued by Tiandi Bank...

"By the way, I went shopping in the town this morning. People in the town are saying that tonight there will be a "City God's Tour" ceremony in the town. Many people from the nearby area will go to see it. It must be lively."

Blacksmith Luo told Yang Ruoqing and Luo Baobao what he had seen and heard while knocking on the paper money.

"The City God is on tour?" Luo Baobao raised his head, his eyes were piercing, and he asked angrily, "Grandpa, what is that?"

Blacksmith Luo smiled and said, "It's the ritual ceremony in our area during the Hungry Ghost Festival. I haven't done it for many years. The last time I did it was more than ten years ago."

"It's like carrying the statue of the Lord City God and parading through the streets in red and colorful colors, and then employing people to pretend to be the ghost officials and ghosts under the hands of the Lord City God, walking on stilts, beating gongs and drums to parade through the streets!"

"Is it held at night? No parade during the day?" Luo Baobao asked again.

"According to the past rules, it usually starts when it is black."

Luo Baobao turned his head to look at Yang Ruoqing, his eyes were full of eagerness and pleading: "Mother, I want to see the City God Parade."

Yang Ruoqing hesitated.

I started swimming after dark, and at least it would take more than one or two hours to finish, and counting the way back to the village, it would probably be close to early morning when I got home.

"Mom, just let me go. I've grown up and never seen the City God parading the streets. I really want to see what it's like!"

Luo Baobao put down the brush in his hand, grabbed Yang Ruoqing's hand, shook it gently, and begged.

"Then where do you sleep at night?"

"I'll come back by myself at night, and I'll go on a fast horse!"

"That's impossible, a girl's house is not safe." Blacksmith Luo shook his head quickly.

"Grandpa, with my skills, it's safe to go anywhere!" Luo Baobao raised his arm and squeezed his fist.

The fist creaked, unambiguously.

Although Luo Fengtang and Yang Ruoqing affirmed her boxing skills, but given her age and experience, the family members inevitably worried that she would be tricked by others.

Although everyone in the village who had dealt with Luo Baobao praised her for being clever, but as parents, Luo Blacksmith and Yang Ruoqing could not be completely at ease.

Don't be afraid of [-], always be afraid of what happens, even if it is a low-probability event, it is still an event, and some mistakes cannot be tolerated once.

"If you have the ability to coax your mother to nod, grandpa will accompany you. At worst, we two will find an inn in the town to stay at night."

The town has its own restaurant, but the restaurant does not operate lodging.

"Yes, just do it!"

With Blacksmith Luo's promise, Luo Baobao has more confidence in negotiating with Yang Ruoqing.

Although she has more confidence, she is more obedient in her aura.

"Mother~"

"The most beautiful and understanding mother in the world~"

"Beautiful sister~"

"That's right." Yang Ruoqing quickly raised her hand to stop her flattery.

"Yeah!" Luo Baobao snapped his fingers excitedly.

(End of this chapter)