What is the origin of the Spring Festival?

The origin of the Spring Festival is the second day of the second lunar month, which is an ancient "Spring Festival". This coincides with the "shock" in the 24 solar terms. The weather gets warmer, the river thaws, spring returns to the earth, everything recovers, and nature presents a vibrant scene. Insects, snakes and wild animals dormant in soil or caves will wake up from hibernation. Legend has it that the dragon in charge of sex will wake up from a deep sleep in winter, so people often say "on February 2, the dragon looks up." In northern China, it is generally believed that "on February 2nd, the dragon rises; A big warehouse full, a small warehouse flow. In fact, the saying "On February 2nd, the dragon looked up" is related to ancient astronomy. In ancient China, twenty-eight nights were used to mark the positions of the sun, moon and stars in the sky and to judge the seasons. In the twenty-eight lodging houses, the horn, sound, rafter, room, heart, tail and dustpan constitute a complete dragon constellation, among which the horn is like the dragon's horn. In February, at dusk, after the spring breeze, the "Dragon Horn Star (that is, one star and two stars)"

It appears on the eastern horizon, so it is called "the dragon looks up".

Myths and Legends of the Spring Dragon Festival There is a folk myth about the origin of the Spring Dragon Festival: According to legend, when Wu Zetian became emperor, the Jade Emperor ordered that it should not rain on the earth for three years. However, Yulong, who is in charge of Tianhe, could not bear the people suffering from disaster and hunger, and it rained heavily secretly. When the Jade Emperor knew it, he put it in the Heavenly Palace and pressed it under a mountain. At the foot of the mountain, a monument stands, which reads: The rain of the Dragon King violated heaven and should be punished by the world for generations. If you want to go back to Lingxiao Pavilion, unless the golden beans bloom. In order to save Yulong, people look for blooming golden beans everywhere.

On the second day of February the following year, people were drying golden corn seeds. Suddenly, they thought that this kind of corn, like golden beans, would blossom as soon as it was fried. Isn't it golden beans? So every household exploded popcorn, put on record and burned incense in the courtyard, offering "flowering golden beans" to Yulong and Jade Emperor. As soon as the Jade Emperor saw that the golden beans in the yard of every household in the world were in full bloom, he would call Yulong back to the sky and continue to rain on the earth. Since then, people have formed this custom. On the second day of February, people will eat popcorn.

The custom of Spring Dragon Festival attracted Tianlong. In many places in northern China, whenever the Spring Festival comes, every family will carry lanterns to fetch water from wells or rivers in the morning. When they get home, they will light lamps, burn incense and offer offerings. In ancient times, people called this ceremony "attracting dragons". On this day, every household will eat noodles, fried oil cakes and popcorn, which are compared to "picking the dragon's head", "eating gentian", "golden beans bloom, the dragon king ascends to heaven, the clouds are raining, and the grain is abundant", indicating auspicious and festive.

Scrape the tap. In some areas, the custom is: on February 2, children are given a "head-shaving tap", that is, a haircut, to show good luck; Women are not allowed to move needle and thread, for fear of hurting the "dzi beads"; People can't draw water from wells either. They should fill their water tanks the day before, or they will run into the "tap".

Fu Ying According to legend, Shen Fuyuan was originally the son of another family and was adopted by his poor neighbor on the second day of February. I didn't expect my neighbor to get rich soon. Later, he became a rich man with fertile land and herds of cattle and horses. This son, who was begged by his neighbors, was recommended as the "God of Wealth" because of his kindness after his death. Therefore, later generations thought that February 2nd was an auspicious day to change from poor to rich, so people worshipped the God of Wealth and welcomed the rich on this day, which later evolved into a custom. It is said that when Shen Fu was alive, he lived frugally and loved to eat wild vegetables, especially Artemisia capillaris. So people picked wild vegetables for him on February 2, forming the custom of picking wild vegetables.

Eat pig head meat. Since ancient times, pigs, cows and sheep have been used to worship the gods, and later it was simplified to the head of the three animals, and the pig head is one of them. According to Qiu Chi's Notes in Song Dynasty, after pacifying Bashu, Wang Zhongling was hungry, broke into a small village temple and met a drunken monk. Wang Zhongling was furious and wanted to cut it. I didn't know that monks were completely fearless. Wang Zhongling was surprised and turned to him for food. Not long after, the monk presented a plate of steamed pig's head and wrote a poem for it: "The mouth is long and short with fat, and the Chinese medicine seedlings are eaten for a long time." When steaming, the banana leaves have been wrapped, and when cooked, water them with apricot paddles. Red, fresh and elegant, called Jin panting, ripe and soft, really like jade. If there is no comparison of hair roots, the felt roots will eat vines by themselves. "Wang Zhongling ate steamed pig's head and was very happy to hear the humorous and unique" pig's head poem ",so he named the monk" Master of Purple Clothes ". Pig's head is not only delicious, but also an auspicious symbol of turning the corner.