A few days later, Bai Qi woke up early.
He and Ah Di were used to living a life of poverty, so it was difficult for them to stay in bed after sunrise.
In Black River County, they moved into their new house, where there was a custom called "crossing the fire," which involved taking a flame from the old house to cook in the new home.
The older generation valued these traditions, and larger families with prosperous members would host lively celebrations full of elaborate processes.
The male host would carry a load, with a pot on one side containing burning ashes mixed with chaff, producing billowing smoke;
On the other side, he carried a basket with an incense burner, candles, and ancestral tablets.
The female host held a rice pot and a spatula, wrapped in red paper containing soybeans, peanuts, sesame, corn, and wheat—the "Five Grains," while descendants held cooking utensils like fire shovels and ladles.
