The Spring Festival has just passed, and "The Gift of the Magi" originally seemed to have nothing to do with the Spring Festival.
But in the end, surprisingly, someone was able to combine this short film with the current Spring Festival, which is increasingly being complained about and is becoming less and less interesting.
In his personal column, the famous editorial critic Li Chenxi took a different approach and linked the work "The Gift of the Magi" to the Spring Festival.
“The Spring Festival is undoubtedly the most special festival for each of us Chinese. However, nowadays, our material life is getting richer and richer, but every year people say that this year’s Spring Festival will never be the same as in the past. That's the taste of the year.
Our "new year taste" no longer has the same old taste as in the past.
why is that?
I remember a friend who was a teacher once asked her first grade students this question.
What impressed you most during the Spring Festival?
The children responded very enthusiastically, and most of their feelings focused on the following points:
There are delicious food, fun things, lucky money and gifts.
In fact, this is not only the answer of today's children, I think it is also the answer of us as children in the past.
The innocent childhood thoughts also made me realize, what does our Spring Festival ritual mean to children?
Is it a gift? Red envelope? new clothes? Or something else?
When I saw "The Gift of the Magi" directed by Li Yi, I couldn't help but think a lot.
The story is very simple. Della was frugal before Christmas and wanted to save money to buy a decent Christmas gift for her husband Jim, but poverty made her frugality so futile.
Della couldn't stand the fact that she couldn't buy Jim a gift. She saw the long hair that she was proud of in the mirror - so she was inspired. She reluctantly gave up her hair, sold her long hair to a wig shop, and bought it for Jim. A platinum watch chain was given as a gift to match Jim's gold watch that had been passed down from generation to generation.
The ending of the story leaves people with mixed feelings - Della cuts off her long hair and buys a watch chain for Jim; Jim sells the gold watch and buys a complete set of tortoiseshell hair combs that Della has longed for.
At the end, maybe I was too emotional and couldn't help but shed tears.
I couldn't help but reflect, why was I crying?
I think behind the tears is the choice of love and the dilemma of decision.
Life cannot always prepare surprises and gifts for us. But the touches in life can be created and felt by the heart.
And in this touching feeling, there is also the "sense of ritual".
Why did Della buy the best gift for Jim when she was so poor, and Jim did not hesitate to sell his ancestral gold watch to buy a gift for Della, otherwise "I can't live without giving you a decent gift." What about this Christmas”?
We often say that things in life are unsatisfactory, nine times out of ten!
The current situation of Della and Jim is obviously not good. Through the lens, through the poverty-stricken family, and through Della who always chooses discounted and last-dated products when shopping, it can be seen that their lives are very difficult and very tight.
But with such a difficult life, why would they give up the only things they are proud of, their long hair and gold watches, and buy other non-necessities for life? The behavior of the two young people may seem a bit clumsy to those who are good at managing money or knowing how to collect.
However, the first thing we need to understand is, one word, sense of ritual!
Christmas in the West, similar to the Spring Festival in China, is the most important festival.
And among the most important festivals, there will inevitably be the most important themes:
Christmas - the most thoughtful gift for the person who means the most to your heart.
Spring Festival - Use the most traditional rituals to celebrate, commemorate and experience gatherings.
Then I suddenly realized that maybe the reason why I cried was that the most touching thing about "The Gift of the Magi" was their clumsy behavior, and the simplicity they brought to each other in the "nine out of ten things in life are unsatisfactory" moved.
Back to the topic of the Spring Festival and the flavor of the New Year, why is the flavor of the Spring Festival no longer strong?
When we ask children what the Spring Festival feels like, we will inevitably recall what the Spring Festival was like when we were children——
The Spring Festival in my memory is a mixture of excitement, joy and mystery. It is the most important traditional festival of the year.
Just like how children feel now, I was also happy during the Spring Festival when I was a child.
There is no need to go to school, and homework can be put aside temporarily.
There will be delicious food, fish, meat and lotus root boxes. There will also be snacks such as melon seeds, peanuts, and candies, which you can eat as you go.
But how many people still remember those mysterious rituals during the Spring Festival? At that time, the old man strictly abided by the rules of not using knives, scissors, or brooms during the New Year, and he avoided any words with unlucky homophonic sounds.
In the funny and somewhat rigid customs, that solemn and mysterious feeling is always hidden in every move.
Let people immerse themselves in the "flavor of the Spring Festival".
But what about now?
How much can you remember? Probably the only way to watch the Spring Festival Gala is to shake red envelopes, right?
In the past Spring Festival, there were opera singing, lion dancing, dragon lanterns, and Yangko dancing.
Unfortunately, after the advent of television, telephones, and the Spring Festival Gala, the only celebration program in rural areas was the daytime Yangko dance. Later, I left the countryside, and I no longer knew whether to perform the Yangko dance during the daytime.
And those who went from house to house to pay New Year greetings were also imprisoned among high-rise buildings and lost.
We have even started to skip making phone calls to say New Year greetings, leaving only group messages of blessing that you won’t even look at.
Just like in "The Gift of the Magi", behind the clumsy behavior is a light that can make life warm.
In our Spring Festival customs, it is not only the prosperous blessings, but also the accumulation behind the prosperous blessings.
This accumulation is more like a long river, flowing our culture and our heritage.
When we worship our ancestors, we not only want to show our wealth and happiness to our ancestors, but also express gratitude and inheritance. How many generations of wisdom have made us what we are today, and every footprint in the inheritance, How worthy we are to see it.
Just like "The Gift of the Magi", on the surface, it seems that the gifts given by Della and Jim have lost their use value, but they are undoubtedly filled with each other's strong "love" - which is priceless one's gift.
Della said: "The hair can be counted, but the love he has for his husband is countless." The gift here has transcended the material form and is poured into a pair of true and sincere partners. Priceless love appears so dazzling and has incomparable value in the "money first" society.
In the same way, the reason why our New Year's spirit has become weaker is not that we receive fewer gifts, blessings and greetings, but that these gifts and greetings are sincere and sincere.
Gifts are just carriers, behind them lies dedication, sacrifice, and the sublimation of humanity and love.
Gifts have a price, but the friendship behind them is priceless. This may be the beauty and warmth conveyed by this slightly desolate story. The supply of love can help people escape from the humble humility of being cash-strapped, live a valuable and dignified life, and have joy and contentment that money cannot buy. "
(End of chapter)
