Hydrangeas in the spring light

The embroidery ball is a top ornament. As far back as I can remember, it always decorated the life of the farming family, adding color to the tiring, boring hours of the day.

There is no better day in a farming family than the New Year. The best time of the year is the fire. The best performance is the lion dance. The best time to play the lion is to dance the embroidered ball. Before, the gong rang, the cymbals rang, the drums rang, and the lion stepped on the drums. But it was just a walk around the field, the steps were broken, the rhythm was even, the pelt was smooth, and although it also attracted the attention of the crowd, everyone's expression was serene. Suddenly, everyone cheered and jumped up and down, and that was certainly because the embroidery ball leaped into existence. Naturally, the ball has no legs and no feet, so it does not roll with momentum. The momentum came from the man, from the dramatic character Wu Song. Wu Song holds a big embroidery ball in his hand, sometimes leaping up in the air, sometimes bowing and bending. This dance of the embroidery ball, the lion suddenly exhilarated, with the embroidery ball suddenly high and low, suddenly up and down, jumping to the pile of hair and thin, flying up and down.

It is after the stirring of the dormice that the embroidery ball makes its appearance again. The flower buds that have been stifled all winter do not wait for the green leaves to sprout and rush to burst open. At the same time as the hundred flowers, the hydrangeas are on the chests of you and me. My friends and I ran out of the house one by one, laughing and jumping, and the balls danced up and down with them. It was not as if we were competing to see whose embroidery ball was the most beautiful, but rather to see whose mother's hands were more skillful. My mother worked all day in the fields, and at night, without resting, she searched out all kinds of flowery fabrics, cut them into small pieces, and sewed them into a beautiful embroidery ball under the bean light. When I ran out of the house with the embroidery ball, I was always greeted with admiration by many of my companions.

It was in the wide theater that the ball was applauded. The theater was quiet, people watched the actors' moves on the stage, and they couldn't take their eyes off the stage. The audience looked at the lady on the high floor to see to whom she would throw the embroidered ball in her hand. The people downstairs were waiting for it, rich, poor, tall, short, fat, thin, all of them wanted to get the ball. The lady was tossing the embroidery ball to fix her life! Suddenly, the crowd erupted in applause and cheers, and it was the lady on the high floor, Liu Yue'e, who did not mind the poor and did not love the rich, who threw the embroidered ball to the poor but talented Lu Mengzheng.

Why was the embroidered ball given an auspicious and beautiful meaning? We have to look at the spring dormancy. A folk proverb says: "The sound of thunder at the jingling festival wakes up the hibernating wintering insects." These bugs and insects are good and bad, and the five poisons that are taboo to all beings are also mixed in with them. Hanging embroidery balls at this time of year is not only for the sake of beauty, but also for the purpose of warding off poisonous insects and evil spirits. According to legend, when Di Yao and the deer fairy got married, their ancestors lived in the cave, thus leaving the legend of entering the cave. Living in a cave, there is always the possibility of being disturbed by five poisons. How to prevent these insects and pests from attacking? The smell of mugwort was so fragrant that Emperor Yao lit it and emitted green smoke to drive away the insects and pests. If he left his residence, he wrapped the mugwort leaves and carried them with him, which was the predecessor of the hydrangea. From simple and rough, it was gradually refined and then evolved into a fine ornament, which became the embroidery ball. Therefore, the origin of the emergence of the embroidery ball is to smoke and kill insects and pests and to protect the peace.

The beauty of embroidery ball can be described as beautiful, and if "embroidery ball" and "peace" are connected, it is even more beautiful and good. "Taiping", of course, has the meaning of national security and world peace, and it is also an old county name. Nowadays, Taiping County has long been included in the map of Xianfen County, but since ancient times, Xianfen or Taiping has been the domain of Yao Capital Pingyang. Long ago, Pingyang was a place where no one was left behind and no one was shut up at night, and this kind of peace and prosperity was worshipped by future generations as "Yao Tian Shun Ri". Peaceful embroidery ball is the product of Yao Tian Shun Ri. Whenever I see the exquisite peace embroidery ball, I will remember a song: "The earth will return to its house, the water will return to its valley, the insects will not make, and the grass and trees will return to their water." This is the "Iji's Wax Rhyme", "Iji" is the surname of Emperor Yao, and "Wax Rhyme" is a ritual song for the heaven and earth, which is a wish for good wind and rain, and good harvest, just like the beautiful meaning of the peace embroidery ball. For this reason, Taiping embroidery ball has become the intangible cultural heritage of Shanxi Province, and has also brought new industries to the beautiful countryside.

Zuo Zhuan - Ding Gong ten years of the sparse cloud: "China has the etiquette of the great, so it is called Xia; there is the beauty of the dress chapter, called Hua. Hua and Xia are also one." A small embroidery ball inherits a profound culture and implies national peace and good fortune.