Grandma Han Yang's Lunar New Year Celebrations in Hongmaogang／阿嬤們的高雄新年 韓楊清水─找不到路回去的紅毛港新年
Grandma Han Yang's Lunar New Year Celebrations in Hongmaogang
◎English translation: Hou Ya-ting ◎Photo by Shih Cian-you
Born in 1937, Grandma Han Yang Cing Shuei grew up in Hongmaogang, located in Kaohsiung's Hisogang District. Due to the Port Expansion Project of 2007, her home had to be relocated. She still hasn't come to terms with the fact that Hongmaogang, as she knew it, no longer exists. Since the completion of the project, she has been back once and found that things were just not the same. Perhaps, because of the struggles the people had to overcome, she still feels a strong bond with her previous home. Grandma Han shares what life was like growing up in the village and how it had its own particular culture, especially with regards to Lunar New Year.
Hongmaogang is surrounded by sea. When Grandma Han Yang was young, Siaogang District was famous for its duck farms. Grandma Han Yang says she would wait for the tides and gather the duck eggs that had washed up on the shore and simply pick them up, as if they were a gift from ocean. "That was how my family got their eggs," says Grandma Han Yang with a chuckle.
Grandma Han Yang grew up during the Second World War. "These years," she explains, "were difficult and full of suffering." The Japanese government would purchase crops, fish and poultry for a very low price from the residents of Hongmaogang. However, if residents attempted to conceal goods, they would be hauled off to the police station and severely beaten. Under these circumstances, residents of Hongmaogang weren't able to provide a proper Lunar New Year feast for their families. However, Grandma Han Yang always found a way to conceal food from the Japanese colonial government.
The Japanese government also forced residents to pay high prices for rationed goods. One of the most rationed items was pork. Pigs were monitored and collected by the government, so the only pork the family could access was by secretly butchering sick pigs. Afterwards, residents would slice the pork thinly, salt it, store it in pottery jars and bury them along the coast, where the Japanese government would not find it.
Lunar New Year was premium fishing season. Most of the fishermen had to work during the holidays so they would usually be out on voyages that would last up to twenty days. Even then, the men would only come home for a few days at a time. However, if the fishermen's ship had the right timing and they were home close to Lunar New Year, the fishermen would be able to stay for a couple of extra days in order to celebrate with their families.
In Hongmaogang, Grandma Han Yan recalls, Lunar New Year would end after the first day. The meal would simply include Rice cakes and Jhongzih (sticky-rice dumpling). Before the holiday, her family would busy themselves with preparations and organize the offering table, in order to worship the ancestors and Matsu, the goddess who is believed to be the guardian of fishermen. During the holidays, the grown-ups would prepare to return to work while the kids would mend the fishing nets. Most people who lived in Hongmaogang married locals, so wives' didn't need to travel very far to visit their mothers on Daughters' Day. Due to the difficult life of the fishermen, they rarely married girls from outside the region. Despite the hard times, Grandma Han Yan maintained the traditions of visiting her mother on the second day and receiving red envelops from her.
阿嬤們的高雄新年 韓楊清水─找不到路回去的紅毛港新年
◎文／周書正 ◎攝影／史乾佑
一九三七年出生的韓楊清水阿嬤是紅毛港人，在戰爭期間出生長大的她，開始有記憶的時候正好是二次世界大戰最白熱化的時候。當時日本政府的徵收手段十分強勢，在紅毛港這裡，不論是土裡種的、水裡抓的、甚至是家裡養的，全部都要上繳給政府作為稅收。政府會用很低的價格跟人民收購，再以高一些的價格、用配額的方式賣給百姓。若是你隱匿家中的收成不報，被舉發之後是會被抓到警察局打屁股打到血肉模糊的。在這個情況下，過年想吃得好一些並不容易，但韓楊阿嬤還是有幫自己加菜的方法。
「紅毛港你知道喔？那時候我們兩邊都是海，內海的對面是小港。平常小港那邊養鴨的人家會把鴨子趕到內海來放，時間到了再把他們趕回去。等到退潮的時候，海水會把小港那邊的鴨子下的蛋沖到我們這裡來，我們再帶著鍋子到岸邊去撿鴨蛋。那時候要吃到蛋只能用這個方法。」韓楊阿嬤一邊笑一邊跟我說。
「那時候每一家配給到的豬肉都很少，家裡養的豬又不能自己殺。要吃到豬肉，就只能偷殺 。」
「偷殺？不是會怕被別人舉報嗎？」
「如果是長大的、健康的豬當然不能殺啊。偷殺的都是不吃飼料的，快死的或是長不大的豬。了之後切成長條狀醃起來，連甕一起拿到海邊埋起來，那時候檢查不會去查海邊，漲潮的時候都是海啊。」
再細問韓楊阿嬤童年在紅毛港的新年印象，她卻跟我說，討海人的新年跟內陸那邊的務農人不同，因為過年這段時間的台灣海峽很適合出船，所以常常家裡面有人是春節還在船上的。
「那時候出船，一次都是二十天，回來休息沒幾天就又會出去。如果剛好過年前人在陸上，還能為了跟家裡吃個飯晚個幾天再出海，但如果已經出去了，就只能在海上過年。」
韓楊阿嬤的兒時春節假期是到初一為止的。除夕夜的時候以炊粿跟包粽子為主，初一的時候整裡家裡並且祭拜祖先、媽祖，隔天又要各自回到工作崗位上，就算沒有出外工作，孩子們還是要幫忙家裡把魚網補好。
「那初二沒有回娘家嗎？」
「我們紅毛港很少會嫁到外面去的，討海那麼辛苦又怎麼會有人要嫁進來？初二的時候回娘家跟媽媽拜個年，媽媽會簡單的包個小紅包，拿完紅包我們就又回去工作了。」
紅毛港的童年聽起來非常辛苦，但在政府徵地之後搬到前鎮好幾年的韓楊阿嬤談起紅毛港的消失與徵收還是忿忿不平。
「上次回去紅毛港看，我真的是找不到路回去啊。」韓楊阿嬤激動的說。
我知道，對韓楊阿嬤來說，就算童年時代如何辛苦，紅毛港也是個無論如何都想要回去的家。