Lantern (prose)

I came across a lantern while eating in a restaurant. In a conspicuous position, it emits white woven light …

This kind of "superfluous" decoration may be just the curiosit

I came across a lantern while eating in a restaurant. In a conspicuous position, it emits white woven light …

This kind of "superfluous" decoration may be just the curiosity of others, or it may not attract their attention at all, but it gives me a long-lost feeling.

I stood there for a long time, and an idea that I had never had before came to my mind. I want to write an article for it to commemorate its existence and be grateful for the light it has brought me. Maybe in a few years or decades, it will be completely sealed in the dust of history.

The boss was a little surprised at my curiosity. "Do you know?"

? "It's not just knowing, it's almost familiar ... We still have deep roots!"

The host said that she is a nostalgic person, and lanterns have brought her good luck in the past and today. But in her place, few people are interested in lanterns.

That night, lanterns decorated my dream … I walked into its ocean. That lantern lit up the dark night …

Let the lantern send you, it's getting dark. The mother on the side said.

"Mom, you, too ... I'm so old, and I still call it that ..." I said with a red face and lightly chastising.

The fiancee smiled. "Ha ha, now I know your nickname ..." She looked at me happily.

When I was a child, I was very thin and often fell ill. The fortune teller told his parents that I should take a special nickname to live longer. It is to choose something that every household in the countryside uses the most as my birth name, so that my illness can be resolved to every household. My parents haven't thought about it for a week. Suddenly one day, my mother inadvertently looked up and saw the lanterns hanging on the dark wall. She had a brainwave and let my dad take it. To this end, after some arguments, they finally agreed-they hope that "lanterns" can help me eliminate disasters and take refuge.

The focus of their argument is that lanterns are not commonly used by everyone, and they are not widely used in other families in the village, such as our family …

Although I was angry and took this vulgar nickname, I couldn't help it. I thought it was for my own good, so I didn't protest. Only with some banter between brothers and sisters and when my classmates looked at me with malicious eyes, there was a nameless anger in my heart that was suppressed.

"Your name is … Lantern?" Once, faced with a strange friend who worked with me, I tried to ask. Someone was calling him just now.

"Yes, what's the matter?" It was a "stealing" look, as if surprised when it was discovered.

Or all roads lead to the same goal, or because we appreciate each other, I immediately felt a kind and familiar feeling with him. My real name is also called lantern.

My surname is Ma, and I only borrowed its name because I have a good impression on it.

We hit it off that day. He said that he had not only seen lanterns, but also used them … which was unexpected, because he told me that he was only in his twenties …

"Folklore lanterns can drive away epidemic ghosts. For example, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the wounded soldiers held lantern activities with the local people to drive away the plague. The sacrificial ceremony recorded in The Book of Songs makes it even more magical. In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, there are also famous artists who specialize in performing lanterns, such as lanterns, hairpins and round lanterns. In short, lanterns have been well used by people through the ages. "

I suddenly realized. It turns out that my real name … the competition is so interesting! I can't help thanking my parents.

"Do you know the origin of lanterns?"

"I know this. It is a kind of lamp used by cavalry in the past to travel at night, which can play the role of wind and rain protection. Because it was applicable, it was later popularized among the people ... "

In my childhood, it happened to be the most popular time for lanterns.

At that time, the mountain village without electricity was dark at night. Lantern is the only light that can be taken away. It is also the only person who can see the light of riding a mountain road in the wind.

But the cost of making lanterns shine is high. It uses a "foreign oil" liquid, which smells like "coal", but it is actually kerosene. It's just that at that time, this fashionable foreign goods were preceded by the word "foreign", such as foreign fire and foreign cloth ... just like calling foreigners foreigners foreigners.

Kerosene is expensive. It costs a few cents to buy a kilo. Sometimes you have to search the family's savings to get back half a bottle! Of course, for this half bottle of baby, you have to make it work wonders at the critical moment.

In the dark room, there is only a halo as big as a dustpan, which is emitted by tung oil lamp. After dinner, our three or five children gathered under a tung oil lamp with a short lamp core and often withered, and all wanted to finish it early. Therefore, no one wants to disturb anyone. Adults are in the kitchen or courtyard dam and do the rest of the work during the day. Although the noise is loud, it doesn't affect us at all.

The only lantern in the house is hanging on the wall of the next room where we sleep. We can't move without an adult's permission.

Tung oil lights up at dusk, and we often make mistakes in our homework. The teacher seems to have a pair of clairvoyance, and tells the crux of the problem: "It's not worth it to turn on your light and be blind in order to save a few dollars." .

Even without the teacher's guidance, we still intend to open lanterns and take the teacher's words as the "sword above". Our demands are strong.

"We will do our homework with lanterns ..." Almost unanimously expressed the same wish.

"After the Spring Festival, use it again ..." For fear of discouraging us, the adults later added in detail: "I'll take it out for you to use ..."

Therefore, in addition to eating, drinking and having fun, there is also a layer of lanterns with tung oil lamps.

When I was doing my homework, I was not convinced that the "old" tung oil lamp was always dim, so everyone got the message and shouted "lantern, lantern". I don't know if I was changing my nickname or watching lanterns. I ignored them. After chatting for a while, they buried themselves in their homework.

The lanterns on the wall are hung and covered with dust most of the time.

Memory to enable it, nothing more than the following situations:

? The whole family, when peeling corn on a mountain of dams; On a stormy night, when the raging flash floods roared in the eaves gutter and raged in the fertile fields; On New Year's Eve, the big lump of firewood accumulated for a year was licked up by cheerful flames, and the family kept the birthday. ...

In addition, it has some sporadic uses, such as sending patients to rural health centers more than ten miles away in the middle of the night for treatment, and going to the production team for vigil when peanuts and corn are ripe ...

I still remember that lantern as a treasure. Although I don't use it several times a year, my father's love and maintenance make me unforgettable.

When we were very young, he wouldn't let us touch lanterns at all. He is out on a mission, so he must bring it up himself. Every once in a while, he will use a small piece of gauze, dip it in water, carefully wipe the glass lampshade, unscrew the nut below, refuel and tighten it again, always making emergency preparations.

When I grow up, I will take care of the lanterns. From time to time, like my father, I will start the mechanism under the lantern, take off the glass cover and polish it carefully, then cut off the burnt head on the wick twist and replace it with a longer one.

Wick twist is twisted into strips with cotton yarn. If it is twisted too much and kerosene cannot be supplied, the flame in the lampshade will be small, and it will go out when it burns. If the twist is less, it will take a lot of twist, and I will have to change it soon. These are all the knowledge that my father taught me in the past. If there are lanterns for me to operate now, I will still be skilled and completely unfamiliar.

If there is such an opportunity, I will carefully wipe the glass cover with an ellipse in the middle and a flat circle. Although I was afraid that it was broken and I couldn't buy a substitute, even though today's material life is rich, if it is still broken, I still can't buy it, because that is not its pure nature.

Unfortunately, the lanterns in memory have not been preserved. I don't remember how it left our house.

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