My hometown is Sangzhi County, Zhangjiajie City, and I am a Tujia boy. Different from the general New Year’s Eve dinner, we usually have a reunion dinner in the early morning of the New Year’s Eve, almost as early as possible, and families will start preparing from dawn.
Therefore, every year at the reunion dinner, the family will experience the moment when the sky is bright after eating. If we are lucky, we can also hear the sound of fireworks and firecrackers set off by nearby residents during the reunion dinner. On this day, people will look forward to the good weather in the coming year, just like farmers, and they all hope that all their wishes will come true and everything will go well in the new year.
Family members have been preparing dishes for the reunion dinner since early in the morning.
When I was a child, I heard from the older generation that Tujia people have the custom of catching up with the New Year, usually having a reunion dinner on the night of the 29th of the twelfth lunar month. But as a Tujia, I have had a reunion dinner on the morning of New Year’s Eve since I was a child. Yes, this is our morning New Year’s Eve dinner.
This year is the same. Our family chose to have a reunion dinner at our third aunt’s house. It is said that three aunts and three uncles have been buying food since the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, including killing pigs from the countryside, and then finding people to smoke them into bacon and sausages. Smoked bacon can be steamed, fried and cooked, and each method is delicious.
Except for bacon, the menu of the annual reunion dinner is "confidential", and people who come to eat don’t know what to eat until the food is served on the table. This year, I asked my third aunt for a menu in advance, including: steak, steamed sausage, fried bacon, pig’s head meat, chicken hotpot, tasty fish, bacon trotters and so on.
I got up early, set out from home and walked.13I came to my third aunt’s house in minutes, and it was early morning.sixHalf past ten. Three aunts and three uncles are already busy. "Honey, thaw the pig’s trotters first, then wash them. I’ll wash those small dishes first. After you finish, then cut the sausage." Third aunt shouted.
At this time, it was just dawn outside. In the words of my composition when I was a child, it was "the sky turned into a fish-belly white". The preparation of the two people’s dishes lasted for almost an hour, and I would help them from time to time. After washing the vegetables, it was already bright outside.
It was dawn after eating, and fireworks sounded outside the house.
At this time, I came to the most important link.——Cooking. My uncle used to work in the cookhouse squad of the army, so he naturally cooked the reunion dinner. Ignite, take out the pot, burn oil and hot dishes. One by one, the ingredients change from raw to cooked in the pot, and the hot air and aroma are intertwined. Third Aunt can’t help but say, "The dishes smell good!"
fromeightAt half past ten, relatives at home knocked at the door one after another, and my brother and nephews scrambled to open the door. "Happy New Year!" Every guest who comes in will say such a sentence. In a short time, the house was full of people.
The dishes were brought to the table and the table was quickly filled. People who were sitting around the fire table smelled the fragrance and came to the table automatically. There is a special program of Spring Festival on the news channel on TV. Overseas Chinese all live the same festival belonging to China people in different places.
Our whole family picked up cups and raised their glasses to wish a happy New Year. It was cloudy that day. Although the sun didn’t come out, there were bursts of fireworks and firecrackers outside the house.——People have a reunion dinner on the morning of New Year’s Eve, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, hoping for a better year.
Xiaoxiang morning herald reporter Man Yankun
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