I have known the cattail leaf fan for as long as I can remember. Grandma has the most cattail leaf fan I have ever seen. I just felt fresh and curious at that time. There is such a thing in the world, but I don't know its origin. Later, I grew up gradually, and I don't know what year, month and day it was. I gradually understood the ins and outs of the cattail leaf fan.
When I was a child, I heard adults say that the cattail leaf fan came from the far south, and later I learned more about it. The main raw material of cattail leaf fan is mallow leaves planted in the south. When making a cattail leaf fan, you should cut off the leaves of cattail leaf to dry. It can only be made into cattail leaf fans after drying. Tear off both sides of the leaves evenly, trim off the irregular branches and leaves, and then cut off the newly plucked "ears". This continuous action is called "ear pulling", "leaf cutting" and "ear cutting". Next, hammer the handle of the cattail leaf fan flat, make it black and white, and widen the narrow handle. This process is called "hammer handle" Then wash the dirt off the fan with clean water, which is also called "washing the fan". There are also smoking, drawing, deboning, sewing fans, piercing ears, cutting handles and other processes. Suddenly I feel that this seemingly insignificant little cattail leaf fan is really hard to make.
Grandma's cattail leaf fan is often held in her hand, fanning me and my sister-in-law with a cool breeze to repel mosquitoes. I remember there was a big street in front of my house. On a hot summer night, all the neighbors sat in the street to enjoy the cool. Grandma sat cross-legged on the straw mat and we snuggled up to her. Grandma picked up the fan for a while and shook it slowly and rhythmically, and the cool breeze of summer night came to my face; Grandma raised her fan for a while and slapped my sister-in-law and me rhythmically. It's a buzzing mosquito.
Grandma shook her fan and showed us the stars, pointing at them one by one. Grandma shook her fan and told the most beautiful story. The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl impressed me the most. I remember that every year on the night of the Beggar's Day, my elderly grandmother shook her fan in tandem with her right hand and pointed at the star "Tianhe" of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl with her left hand. My grandmother pointed to the vast Milky Way and said, "The wide road across the north and south is the Tianhe River, and there is a special one on each side of the Tianhe River. This is where the weaver girl in the sky meets the cowherd on the ground. " Grandma stopped the cattail leaf fan, pointed to the two small black stars on both sides of Altair and said, "Look at those two small stars on both sides of Altair again. That's a cowherd with a burden on his back. How similar! " When my grandmother said this, I took a closer look and blurted out: "Yes, it is. Very similar. The burden on both sides is about the same distance. It's amazing. " Grandma also seemed to say seriously, "Alas, this is too pitiful for Yuanyang and their children. At that time, the weaver girl was a clever, beautiful and ingenious seven-day fairy. She fell in love with Cowherd, gave birth to a man and a woman on earth, and lived a kind and friendly life. Later, the queen mother found out and forced the seven fairies to return to heaven. From now on, you can't come to the earth again. Only on the evening of the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year are you allowed to meet cowherd on both sides of the Milky Way. Once a year! " Grandma spoke with relish, and the fan trembled with anxiety, and the legend of heaven and earth shook in her cattail fan.
Grandma's cattail leaf fan is very easy to use, and often fans my sister-in-law and me to sleep soundly. I remember that sometimes when my siblings and I were sleepy, my grandmother would pick up a cattail leaf fan and pat us gently, while gently saying, "Oh, my child is sleepy, there are fleas on the kang, and there are ... underground, which makes the child sleepy." Grandma said rhythmically, flapping and shaking the fan, and our two eyelids began to fight, and soon we entered a sweet dream. Now that I think about it, my grandmother's cattail leaf fan was the sound sleep of my sister-in-law and I when we were children. My grandmother's cattail leaf fan shook out many beautiful dreams of my sister-in-law and me.
Grandma often snuggles up on the bedroll on the kang and takes a nap. When she heard the dog barking at the chicken, she would roll up the paper window, pick up the cattail leaf fan, beat the windowsill and shout, "Get down, don't drive it away." Hearing the "pa pa" sound of the cattail leaf fan and grandma's shouts, my black dog bowed his head and went back to his nest as if he had done something wrong. When watching chickens eat dry food in the yard, grandma will roll up the paper window and knock on the windowsill with a cattail fan, and then shout, "Let's eat in the street." Grandma's cattail leaf fan fluttered, frightened and shouted loudly, and the rooster, hen and big chicken would fly, run in a hurry and run outside the door. Grandma used this trick really well. In her hands, the cattail leaf fan seems to be a "weapon" to scare birds and animals. The cattail leaf fan rang, and the chickens and dogs were obedient and wussy. No wonder my grandmother's cattail leaf fan impressed me so much.
Grandma also used a cattail leaf fan to drive away flies for us, which made us sleep better. Fan the wind in front of the stove with a cattail fan, and barbecue grasshoppers, cicadas, green scales and jade fish for us ... Grandma helped us with many things with a cattail fan. Although I can't remember most of them now, grandma's cattail leaf fan still lingers in funeral march.
Grandma's cattail leaf fan has been shaken in her hands for decades, shaking out happiness, joy and emotion; Grandma's cattail leaf fan has been shaking in my heart for decades, shaking out gratitude, homesickness and missing. ...