Trilogy to Spring Festival

Updated: 2015-03-11 15:53

[Photo/Xinhua]

By Cao Xinghua (曹兴华)

Spring Festival is the most joyful occasion when we Chinese get into the full swing of celebrating the beginning of a new year, the happiness from which is reflected in both the material wealth we create and the pride we take in showing ourselves to the world. For each individual, what matters most is how we can fully employ all our senses to observe, hear, smell and feel the joyful atmosphere and get involved in it vigorously and enthusiastically. The taste of Spring Festival varies depending on different eras.

Part 1

When I was a kid back in the 1980s, Spring Festival was more like an expensive commodity. In hard times, every human being was in fervent expectation of an affluent New Year. For small kids, the season held boundless fun to explore. I can well remember on a cold spring morning, my brother and I romped across our courtyard, joking and giggling, watching mum struggling to fetch cabbages from our family cellar. I saw strings of red dried peppers dancing on parallel clotheslines like thousands of little red flags. I saw my grandma, bending over the sink, washing up fish and chicken under the cold faucet. I can smell the inviting aroma of domestic cuisine wafting through alleys, floating above the quiet village, and finding its way into people’s nostrils. I can hear sporadic sounds of firecrackers and lively music flowing from some household gramophones near or far… Then with a metallic click, our front door swung open. My grandpa appeared at the doorway, coming back from his weekly shower, followed by my father and his big-wheeled bicycle, together with bags of food and daily necessities on the back saddle. Poking her head out the kitchen door, my grandma yelled cheerfully to us all that dinner was ready. The joyful atmosphere continued to accumulate until midnight when the celebration came to a climax with continuous blasts of firecrackers.