Chapter 83: Chinese New Year (Part 1)

In Shaoxing custom, after sending the Kitchen God to the Little New Year, we began to prepare ‘blessings’, which is the most solemn ceremony of the year.

In fact, the so-called "blessing" should be said to be "invite blessings", or it is more accurate to extend it to "invite blessings to come to your house for dinner".

But when treating a meal, it will inevitably lead to different thrifts due to different family conditions. Most people use one meat, one live fish, and one goose to invite the Bodhisattva to pay attention to the "five animals" to offer it. A large family like the Shen family uses the "seven animals" to offer it, but there are more cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks, and they are all whole.

The rules are naturally different. Most people just cook the offerings and insert some chopsticks, which is called a blessing gift. They will be displayed on the fifth day, light incense and candles, and invite the blessing gods to enjoy them. But when they arrive at a wealthy family like the Shen family, everything that was originally simple has led to a series of complexities. They exhausted their hearts and spared no effort to renovate a table of flowers... I don’t know whether it was to satisfy the great bodhisattva or to satisfy their inner vanity.

For example, their blessings are all filled in large buckets, with pig's mouth facing upwards, chickens and goose whiskers bent their bodies and kneeling their legs, and heading them towards the God of Fortune to show their greetings; another living carp means "jumping the dragon gate", and the fish's eyes should be pasted with red blessing characters to avoid frightening the God of Fortune. They should also put some chopsticks on the offerings such as meat, chickens, and gooses, and the number should be single, and seven and nine are appropriate. However, those poor little animals will be placed in the form of eighteen after they are cooked, which is definitely very unhappy.

Before asking the Bodhisattva to come to the table, the women of the Shen family set up bowls, chopsticks, and wine cups, put the "Seven Blessings of Essences" in the middle, with a knife and chopping board on the right, and a bowl of chicken and duck blood on the left, indicating to the Bodhisattva that this is specially for you to kill, and except for the inedible ones, you will enjoy it alone.

But if you eat meat, Bodhisattvas will get greasy, so you have to put ten bowls of vegetarian dishes such as leek, celery, wood fungus, etc. There is also a plate of fermented bean curd with meals. I was afraid that it was not suitable for saltiness, so I also served a plate of fine salt and put two pieces of dried tofu on the salt. Please ask the Bodhisattva to add it with your own taste.

How can I get the food without wine? So I have to serve six cups of wine. I am afraid that the Bodhisattva will choke, so I serve three cups of tea and prepare it. There are also several rice cakes and a string of rice dumplings, which is considered as pasta for the Bodhisattva.

This sumptuous meal was only prepared, but it was not over yet... I can't just let the Bodhisattva have a meal, but I have to prepare some fruits to clean my mouth after the meal, and then I have arranged four-color dried fruits of lychees, longans, walnuts, dates, lotus roots, oranges, papayas, and Buddha's hand. At this moment, the whole table is full... Except for the five dish-sized spaces inside.

At this time, women have to leave. The man who presided over the sacrifice brought five candlesticks, placed them in the empty space, and lit five big red candles. This is called the "Five Things Candlesticks", which represent "Fu, Luck, Longevity, Wealth, and Nobleness." This is called "Book of Excuses". First, invite the Bodhisattva to eat and drink enough, and then take the opportunity to raise the request... You Dao is a short-mouthed person, and I believe the great Bodhisattva is embarrassed to refuse.

It is said that "men do not worship the moon, women do not worship the sacrifices." When worshiping, they are only for men, and this is the same as rich and poor. In fact, this discrimination runs through the entire blessing, such as those who have been divorced, remarried, died, pregnant, or entered the delivery room, are not allowed to touch blessings or sacrifices.

When it comes to the official blessing, even the wives and ladies have to avoid it... It is said that because Bodhisattvas love cleanliness, women are unclean, and they will not eat if they are present... According to this inference, it is normal for men to be dirty and not love cleanliness.

The women and ladies left in disappointment, secretly hoping that the fifteenth day of August would come soon, and that they could just discriminate against men when worshiping the moon.

When the women left, they followed their father in silence. The hall was tall, short, fat and thin, all of them were men of their tribe. Without command, everyone naturally stood according to their age and stood in order. Under the leadership of the head of the family, Mr. Shen, they performed a grand ceremony to the Bodhisattva with three kneelings and nine kowtows.

The entire festival was held late at night, and everyone must remain absolutely quiet and not laugh casually. The depression of the atmosphere is beyond words.

After kowtowing, he watched Mr. Shen get up silently. He was about to get up, but he saw that the people around him were not moving, so he had to continue kneeling and secretly glance at what Mr. Shen is doing.

He poured a full glass of wine and slowly sprinkled it on the ground. Then he respectfully invited the statue of the gods and burned them together with the paper and ingots. When it was almost burned to ashes, Mr. Shen dug down the tongue of the chicken and goose on the altar with his head raised, threw it into the air, and then laid a cup of wine with tea around the fire, and in a tone of a great god, he muttered: "The Bodhisattva has a spirit, take the mouth and tongue away."

Then he turned around and said, "Remove the blessings and sacrifices." Then the men got up one after another, and passed by a few noble generations, carefully carrying the sacrificial table out of the hall, which was obviously completed.

After witnessing this extremely short sacrifice process, he said silently: 'It's really too fast. Does the Bodhisattva have time to stretch out his chopsticks? So he pulled it away.' Taking advantage of the commotion of the crowd, he asked Chen Jing beside him in a low voice, "Why did he toast a glass of wine? Are you afraid that the Bodhisattva will get drunk?"

Chen Jing snorted and quickly covered his mouth, seeing that no one around him cared about it, then the mosquito hummed, "Have you heard of 'High Bodhisattva, slow ancestor'? It is said that Bodhisattvas eat very quickly. When we pour wine, the Bodhisattva will finish eating. If they are late, they will be unhappy."

I was silent and said that this was not a treat? Isn’t this a treat? Isn’t it a treat? The people do invite them to dinner, but they all gathered together. Which one should the Bodhisattva eat? I only gave them a blink of an eye to eat. Do you have time to taste it? He believed that if the Bodhisattva had a choice, the people in Shaoxing would definitely be invited by the people in Shaoxing. Your family would be invited to the first day of the first day of the day and his family would be invited to the fifteenth day of the year, so that they could have dinner all year round...

He secretly made up his mind to wait until he presided over the sacrifice, how long should the offerings be placed? Of course it is a meal... I believe that even if the Great Bodhisattva of the God of Fortune is to have enough food, he will come to his house to have dinner every year.

Later generations of Shen’s blessings were more than other parents, and they originated here.

At this time, the men just now moved out with the sacrificial table. After being silent, they realized that the matter was not over.

He saw the chicken and duck offerings above, and the cup, plate, candlesticks were not changed at all, and he thought to himself: "What's the use of bringing them back now? The Bodhisattva must have backbone."

At this time, the crowd began to move, first facing the hall door, but then they fell again, turning their backs to the door.

After silence, I realized that when I first offered sacrifices to God, the tabletop was swinging with wood grain, but now it has been swinging straight.

"What is this for?" he asked in a low voice.

"Please go back to the hall to eat." Chen Jing whispered.
Chapter completed!