When we returned to the old house, my grandma was busy cooking for us, but was stopped by Li Wei and my brother. My grandma was so old that she could still bother her to cook. What's more, the way to eat the most in her hometown is very simple.

Zangdong County is located in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with sufficient light and abundant precipitation. In this unique environment, the crops here have high sugar and sufficient starch and extremely good taste, especially potatoes. Li Wei and his brother like the most are potatoes in their hometown, and they are the best choices. Many of the Yi foods are made of potatoes. To be honest, I was really hungry when I climbed up the mountain so early in the morning. After putting down the things, Li Wei and his brother went to the kitchen to pick up some moderately large potatoes, washed the yellow mud on the surface with a brush, and then started a fire in the fire pit in the main hall and cooked the potatoes in a hanging pot.

The fuels of the mountain houses are usually pine trees and ferns. In order to make the fire burn more vigorously, grandma broke the dry pine branches from time to time and put them into the fire. The air was filled with the unique sweetness of the rosin burning, which made people feel refreshed in an instant. The bright yellow flame licked the bottom of the pot happily. The fire illuminated grandma's wrinkled face and showed her extra kindness and warmth. After a while, the water opened. Grandma opened the lid of the pot and poked the surface of the potato with a chopstick to see how mature the potato was, until the potato was 90% mature, and then poured out the water left in the pot. There was no open fire left in the fire pond, leaving only some bright red charcoal, and then hung the pot and baked until the bottom of the pot was completely water.

When the bottom of the baking pot was evaporated, and then the bottom of the baking pot made a thick browned crust. Even if the potatoes were ready, the strong fragrance churned out with the heat. The skins of the potatoes were swelled up, revealing the obvious translucent and granular interior because the starch was too sufficient. Looking at the potatoes, Li Wei could not hold back. He reached out and grabbed them. As soon as he grabbed them, he screamed immediately, throwing the potatoes back into the pot as if they were electrocuted, scratching his head. Grandma grabbed Li Wei's hand with heartache and blew it, while complaining: "My treasure, no one can compete with you. Show it for grandma, it's burned."

Alas, Li Wei must admit that his personality is a bit too impatient. Instead, his brother, orderly forked a steaming potato with chopsticks, and slowly peeled the skin with his hands while blowing it. Then, chewing the potatoes with a small mouthful of cold appearance. Seeing that his brother was eating so sweet, Li Wei was not in a hurry to eat it. He first forked the potatoes with the most crumbs on the bottom of the pot, and then put them in the remaining carbon in the fire pit to bake it carefully until the potatoes are browned and then peeled off the crumbs and ate them. The crumbs that were crispy and sweet and had a strong smell of wood carbon. Then he started eating potatoes that had been slowly cooled down. He felt that the sweetness in his mouth was endless. The unique fragrance that was chewed thousands of times is enough to make you intoxicated.

Grandma looked at Li Wei and his brother kindly while eating while eating, and her face was smiling. She told the brothers to eat slowly. She wanted to go to the vegetable field behind the house and then come back. After a while, Grandma came back, with something on her blue waist. When Li Wei saw that it was some freshly picked green peppers (the kind that is very spicy instead of non-spicy vegetable peppers). Grandma picked off the pepper stems and put the peppers on the fire charcoal to bake. The method was like making paste peppers in the previous article. However, green peppers do not need to completely dry the water. As long as the skin is roasted with uneven burn marks on the carbon, then dipped in coarse salt, it only felt very salty and spicy when in the mouth. One bite of chili peppers and one bite of potatoes, the salty and spicy peppers are mixed with the sweetness of potatoes, which is really unique.

Grandma told them about what happened in their hometown, whose children got married, which old man passed away, etc. Although grandma was illiterate, when she was alive, she said that grandma was so handsome and heroic when she was young, she was completely as good as a man. She became the captain of a militia at a young age. She sang mountain songs and made a large group of young men scratch their heads, but she was not in line with it. She was the first in the village to oppose an arranged marriage (although she failed, she finally married Grandpa Li Wei.

) Work faster than men. I have worked hard to raise my father, Uncle No. 1, and I am old now but I am unwilling to go down the mountain. Although I am taking care of my second uncle and Uncle No. 1, it is impossible to stop in the countryside even if I am old. There is always work for you to do. I have been busy all year round, and it is very hard. Uncle No. 1, and Uncle No. 1, once asked my grandmother to rest, but no matter what, my grandmother always finds something to do for herself, cutting pigs, grass, raising chickens and ducks...

Grandma kept complaining that it was less and less fun than they were back then. Although the material conditions were scarce at that time, when the Torch Festival, the whole village was going to race horses, sheep fighting, bullfighting, wrestling, dancing, singing. Although they were so poor, everyone gathered together to have a carnival all night long. Now that the material conditions were better, it was different. Young people went out to work. Other festivals were gathering together to gamble, and the competition had bonuses, but they lost the happiness of the year. Grandma happily talked about the interesting things of the year. Sometimes she was too happy to forget that Li Wei and her brother could not speak Yi. A long passage of Yi language was dizzy. To be honest, Li Wei did not fully understand what grandma expressed. However, Li Wei knew that grandma actually needed only an object to listen to.

The second uncle's family and the youngest uncle's family went up the mountain. Because tomorrow is the Torch Festival, everyone will play crazily for three days, so they are busy working hard. Speaking of which, grandma is really full of children and grandchildren, with three sons, four grandsons and two granddaughters. Although the family is separated, it is still full of joy.

While chatting with them, grandma kept bunting some dried bamboo pine branches and rag strips on her hands. Those things were as if they were spiritually put together under grandma's rough, thin and old-spotted hands. Grandma made torches for these younger generations every year, and this year was no exception. Grandma also mentioned the legend of the Torch Festival to them. Li Wei was usually interested in the tradition of his own nation and had searched for information in the library. The Torch Festival is a traditional festival of the Yi people. Bai, Lisu, Wa, Brown, Naxi, Lahu, Pumi and other tribes also had the tradition of celebrating this festival. It has been passed down for more than a thousand years since the Han and Tang Dynasties. The Torch Festival is usually held on the 24th day of the lunar calendar every year and lasted for three days. There are dozens of records and legends about the origin of the Torch Festival, which are rich in content and beautiful and moving. The more common sayings are:

1. According to legend, Entiguz in the sky (the god in the Yi mythology) sent his minions to the mortal world to endanger sentient beings and crops. Under the leadership of Zhige Alu (the hero in the Yi mythology) (some say Attilapa), people were not afraid. On June 24th of the lunar calendar, they burned pests with torches and defeated the gods. Therefore, the Yi people designated this heaven as the Torch Festival and passed on from generation to generation.

2. Shulun compiled the "Xichang County Chronicle" and recorded:... During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was Deng Gengzhao, one of the six. Nanzhao wanted to merge the five imperial edicts, but because of Xinghui Festival, he summoned the five imperial edicts to drink at Songming Tower. Deng Geng's wife was charitable and was afraid that it was difficult to stop her husband and did not do it, so she did not listen. So she used iron bracelets to make a reservation and left behind. When she arrived in Nanzhao, she was fired and the other imperial edicts found that her husband could not be known. She only charitable for her husband to return her bones. Nanzhao was not favored and hired her coins. She was good at saying that her husband had not been buried. After she was buried, she defended herself in Yingcheng. Nanzhao surrounded her with soldiers. After the foes were over in March, she was still tall and sat upright and starved to death.

Nanzhao found regret and praised the city as Deyuan. On June 24th, Yunnan customs, it was pineapped in the household. The fire was more than a meter long, and at night, they fought to burn it first to illuminate the fields and pray for the years, and used it to make the torch light and dark to tell the fortune. Friends and friends gathered together, chopped animals and drank, and the barbarians and Han were in harmony... As stated in the "Xichang County Chronicles. Literary and Art Chronicles" (Jianchang Zhuzhi Ci): The prophets will not go back when they go to the banquet, and the smoke from the fire building is still mourning, but now the fire trees are becoming a custom, and they will be willing to turn the ice into ashes; the wisdom heart is too late to go back when they go away, and they will be mourned when they give it to the golden cup. People who have been illuminated throughout the ages still illuminate the rules, and the six edicts have turned into ashes.

3. In ancient times, a strong man in the sky fell and a strong man on the ground. The strong man in the sky was defeated by the strong man on the ground. He fled to the sky in a panic and pulled out his right and wrong in front of the gods. So the gods were angry on earth, sending a large number of pests to the ground to trample crops and endanger the people. People lit torches to the fields to drive away pests and defeated the gods. This day happened to be the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. The Yi people designated this heaven as the Torch Festival.

The Torch Festival is the most grand traditional festival of the Yi people in Liangshan, Sichuan. At that time, every family drinks, eats tuple meat, and kills animals to worship their ancestors. People wear new clothes and carry out cultural and sports activities with ethnic characteristics. Men participate in bullfighting, sheep, chickens, horse racing, and wrestling; women sing, blow the moustache, and play the moon zither. At night, they swim around the front and back of the house; on the third night, they hold the torches in groups and travel around the mountains and fields, and the fire is shining. Then they gather in a place to light a bonfire, take torches, drink, sing, dance, and play until dawn.

In Matou Mountain, Zangdong County, the most important thing about the Torch Festival during the day is horse racing and song racing. At night, it dances around the bonfire with the melodious sound of flutes, and the children dance in the fields with torches and chase and fight. They just need to be careful that if they are not careful, their clothes will be burned out of the hole by sparks.

Listening to grandma telling the ancient legend of the Yi people, Li Wei's eyelids gradually became heavier. Grandma watched Li Wei sitting in Cao Deng (a seat made of straw that looks like a cylinder. In the New Three Kingdoms, the princes all took a seat when they were all trying to fight Dong Zhuo.) She couldn't help but feel angry and funny like a chicken pecking at rice. She asked Li Wei to go to bed in the house. Li Wei refused to keep saying that she would help grandma do farm work. Grandma had no choice but to lay a sheepskin jacket by the fire pit, and put a rabbit-skin pad on Li Wei's head, gently covering her ear tiles (covered with felt) on Li Wei's body. Grandma's rough hands gently stroked Li Wei's face, and before she knew it, Li Wei fell asleep sweetly.

Every day, hell-like devil training, and sometimes you have to store your energy and have to swim for thousands of meters, which keeps Li Wei's body in a very tired state every day. In addition, he has to climb the mountain with dozens of kilograms of things on his back. This sleeps until he smells the strong aroma of rice before he wakes up. Looking at the sky outside the house, it is almost sunset, and grandma is cooking the hanging pot rice by the fire pit. Li Wei has always felt that making hanging pot rice is like practicing Tai Chi, which is easy to learn but difficult to master. Although the method of hanging pot rice is extremely simple, it is nothing more than cooking rice, burning fire, filtering rice soup, and heating it again until it is cooked thoroughly. The most difficult one is the heat, a little more

If the burn is less, then the child will be born. In this regard, grandma is like a master who has reached the pinnacle. She can perfectly master the heat by smelling the smell. With the skillful hand of an old man, firewood as fuel, green rice without pesticides, and a very easy-to-heat pot, the cooked rice is really fragrant, which makes Li Wei, who is used to eating rice cookers, and his brother, who are used to eating rice cookers, move his index fingers. He really wants to grab a handful of rice and stuff it into his mouth. Standing up and moving his body, Li Wei and his brother helped his grandma wash vegetables. In fact, Li Wei wanted his grandma to rest and cook by himself, but grandma was reluctant. Li Wei had to give up in disappointment.

Later, the second uncle and uncle, uncle, came back with exhaustion. Li Wei's two sisters and a younger brother were so happy to see Li Wei and his brother coming. The brothers and sisters were having fun together. Li Wei and his brother took out the gifts they brought to them. The hometown is too backward. Although there is an elementary school in the village, it is extremely dilapidated because many children can't speak Chinese. The teacher always teaches Chinese and Yi language during class, let alone English classes, etc. The slightly better school is in the big pine forest across the mountain, and there are dozens of miles of roads back and forth. In such an environment, the education the younger brother and sister are imaginable. So although it is not a valuable thing, just some simple stationery, the younger brother and sister are very happy.

Dinner is a repot of the old Yi family bacon, dried sauerkraut, and the fruits and vegetables in the fields. Although it is relatively simple, the whole family gathers together and erects and erects while eating, making people feel very happy. The happiest thing is the younger brothers and sisters chirping like happy birds. After all, they are children. For them, the fun of the Torch Festival is not something adults can imagine.
Chapter completed!