The story started a month ago, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is no stranger to my friends. As for its origins, allusions, legends, and so on, you may know more than me, so I won't go into detail here.
Here, I'm talking about the villages here. The Mid-Autumn Festival happens to be the autumn harvest season. Crops such as corn, soybeans, and peanuts mature one after another. It's the busiest harvest season of the year. Therefore, the Mid-Autumn Festival in our villages is very ordinary. We just buy two catties of mooncakes and sacrifice them to the gods and the Kitchen God at home. Then, the whole family will share the mooncakes. It's almost like there's no festival, just like the Dragon Boat Festival."Around the Dragon Boat Festival, we just happen to be harvesting wheat here. We're also very busy. Some families might take some free time to put some sugar cakes, vegetable dumplings, and the like in the oil pan. They also worship the immortals and eat them. "In recent years, we have rice dumplings. Personally, I don't think the taste is very good. It's not very sticky. Maybe it's not top-grade. However, when I was young, we didn't have rice dumplings here at all. Let alone eating them, we didn't even see them.
I can't guarantee that all the villagers in Henan will agree with what I said above. I'm only talking about the rural areas in our area, not the entire Henan Province, nor the city people here.
These two festivals, the countryside here almost didn't feel anything. The ones who felt anything were probably the city people. The holidays were for them, and the festivals were for them.
Of course, I'm not complaining or being cynical. I'm just saying what's in my heart.
During the past Mid-Autumn Festival, I heard from Grandma that we had to offer sacrifices to the River God. When the moon came out, the village chief would lead the entire village to the riverbank to burn incense and kowtow. Then, they would place river lanterns the size of millstones in the river. If it happened to be a leap year, the Mid-Autumn Festival would happen after the autumn harvest. If it happened to be a bumper harvest, the villagers would not only sacrifice to the river god and light the river lanterns, but they would also use straw to make a big grass dragon. The grass dragon was covered with pine oil torches, and the whole dragon looked like it was baring its fangs and brandishing its claws. Then, it would be carried by a dozen young men and danced back and forth on the river bank. The reflection of the grass dragon in the river was very beautiful.
Back to the main topic. At this time, the Cai family in Kaifeng was more " refined " during the Mid-Autumn Festival. After all, they were a family of scholars. Cai Wenye liked to imitate the ancients. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, he would hold a few banquets on his balcony. The whole family would gather together to enjoy the feast and admire the moon.
Before the feast, the woman in charge of the family had to cut the mooncakes, watermelons, and sacrifice to the moon. Then, the women in the family would start by burning incense and worshipping the moon in front of the sacrificial table.
That day, my great-great-grandmother also paid her respects to the moon. At this time, her treatment in the Cai family was almost the same as before she married. She still lived in her own fragrant building, and by her side were Xiao Lan and Xiao Xiang, the two servant girls. The only difference was that my great-great-grandmother had a three-year-old child by her side, who was my great-grandfather.
These strange things in the Cai Residence might be related to my great-grandmother's maid, Xiao Lan. Xiao Lan was the servant girl who brought my great-great-grandfather and Wang Shoudao to find the corpse of the "flower guardian ghost". She was also one of the servant girls who helped my great-great-grandmother's paper figurine substitute when she sent the flower guardian ghost.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]