The origin of dragon head festival

Many people may not know the origin of the Dragon Head Festival. The dragon head festival is on the second day of the second lunar month, also known as the dragon head festival. This is a festival where people worship dragons for rain and pray for God to bless the harvest of the makers, so it is called the Dragon Head Festival. Do you know the origin of the Dragon Head Festival?

Origin of Dragon Head Festival 1

The Origin and Customs of Dragon Head Festival

Basic introduction

Dragon Boat Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China. It is also a traditional festival in rural China. Legend has it that it is the day when dragons raise their heads, which is a traditional festival in rural areas of China. People celebrate the "Dragon Head Festival" to show respect for the dragon, pray for rain and let God bless the harvest.

origin

As for the origin of the dragon head festival, there is a legend that this festival originated in the period of the leader Fu. Fu "attaches importance to farming and farming". On February 2nd every year, "The Queen Mother delivers meals and plows the fields with her own horses" to take care of herself. Later, the Yellow Emperor, Tang Yao, Yu Shun and Yu Xia all followed the example of their predecessors. When I went to Zhou Wuwang, I not only followed this traditional practice, but also implemented it as an important national policy. On the second day of February, a ceremony was held, and all civil and military officials could personally plow an acre of land. This is the historical legend of the Dragon Head Festival. On the other hand, Wu Zetian abolished Tang Lizhou as emperor, which provoked the jade emperor to be furious and ordered the Dragon King not to rain for three years. The dragon king could not bear to lose his life, and it rained heavily secretly. When the Jade Emperor learned of this, he shot the Dragon King out of the Heavenly Palace and pinned him down at the foot of the mountain. Lebanese people feel that the Dragon King is deeply grateful to Rain God and prays to heaven every day. Finally, he moved the jade emperor and released the dragon king on the second day of February, so there was a saying that "the dragon looked up on the second day of February" In fact, in the past, rural water conservancy conditions were poor, and farmers attached great importance to the spring rain and celebrated the "Dragon Head Festival" to show respect for dragons, pray for rain and let God bless the harvest. From their wishes, it is good, so the "Dragon Head Festival" has been passed down to this day.

Second, it is related to ancient astronomical phenomena. In the old days, people divided the astrology near the ecliptic into 28 groups, which respectively indicated the positions of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky, commonly known as "Twenty-eight Hostels", as a reference for astronomical observation. The "Twenty-eight Hostels" are divided into four groups according to the four directions of east, west, north and south, resulting in "four elephants": black dragon in the east, white tiger in the west, suzaku in the south and Xuanwu in the north. In Twenty-eight Nights, the horn, kang, ground, room, heart, tail and dustpan form a dragon-shaped star, which is called the Black Dragon in the East. The horn represents the horn of the dragon, the kang represents the throat of the dragon, the old represents the claw of the dragon, the heart represents the heart of the dragon, and the tail and jump represent the tail of the dragon. In Shuowen, there is a record that the dragon "can be quiet and bright, detailed and huge, short and long, reaching the sky at the vernal equinox and diving in the autumn equinox", which actually refers to the changes of the oriental black dragon astrology.

In ancient times, people observed that the stars in the black dragon rose in the eastern night sky in spring and set in the west in autumn, and their cycles and orientations coincided with the agricultural cycle in a year. When farming began in spring, the stars in the black dragon began to rise in the eastern night sky, revealing bright bibcock, crops grew in summer, and the stars in the black dragon hung in the southern night sky; In autumn, the crops are harvested, and the stars in the black dragon begin to fall in the west; Everything lurks in winter, and the stars in the black dragon are hidden under the northern horizon. Every year on the night of the second day of the second lunar month, the stars in the black dragon begin to emerge from the east, and the horns representing the dragon horns begin to appear on the eastern horizon. About an hour later, the dragon's throat rose above the horizon, and near midnight, the Pleiades star appeared. This is the process of "the dragon looks up". Every day after that, the date of "the dragon looks up" is about a little earlier. After more than a month, the whole "faucet" was "lifted". Later, this day was given multiple meanings and sustenance, and evolved into "Dragon Head-raising Festival" and "Spring Dragon Festival".

Third, the formation of the dragon head is also related to the natural geographical environment. On February 2nd, the Dragon Head-lifting Festival is mainly popular in the north (there is little water in the south, so it is more popular to offer sacrifices to the land gods).

Legend has it that the Dragon Head Festival was called the "Flower Festival" in the Song Dynasty, and this day was designated as the birthday of Baihua. In the Yuan Dynasty, this day was called "Youth Day", and people went out for an outing on this day. Some people go home for an outing, pick some leaves along the way (a kind of flowers and leaves that grow on the ground) and bring them back to their homes to worship. This custom is a metaphor for "welcoming the rich".

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was called the day when the dragon looked up, because the second day of the second lunar month coincided with the "shocking" solar term. Many animals, such as snakes, earthworms and frogs. In winter, if you don't eat or drink, you will go into hibernation, which is called "entering the sting". By February 2nd, the weather was getting warmer, and some insects and animals seemed to be awakened from their sleep by the sunshine and thunder in spring, so this festival was named "Jing Zhe". In fact, there is no legendary dragon. That kind of dragon was created by our ancestors on the basis of snakes and earthworms. Around the second day of February, spring returns to the earth, and people expect dragons to kill all harmful poisonous insects and expect a bumper harvest. This is the saying "On February 2nd, the dragon looks up".

In Beijing, there are many customs on February 2. As the saying goes, "On February 2nd, look at the house beams, scorpions and centipedes have nowhere to hide." On this day, people will drive away pests, light candles and watch the beams and walls drive away scorpions and centipedes. These insects will fall down and be destroyed at the sight of light. On this day, folk food is usually named dragon for good luck. For example, eating jiaozi is called eating "Dragon Ear", eating rice is called eating "Dragon Son", eating wonton is called eating "Dragon Tooth", and the surface of steamed cake is also shaped like a dragon forest, called "Dragon Forest Cake". On this day, women avoid needlework so as not to hurt the dragon's eyes. Even shaving a child's head is called "shaving tap".

The origin of the dragon head festival 2.

February 2nd, a traditional folk festival. Popular in most parts of China, Miao, Zhuang, Manchu, Dong, Li, She, Buyi, Hezhe and Ewenki also celebrate this festival. There are many customs and activities in this festival, which are also called Flower Festival, Youth Walking Festival, Lai Picking Festival, Spring Dragon Festival, Qinglong Festival and Dragon Head-up Day. Because it is on the second day of the second lunar month, it is called. This custom was recorded in the Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi's poem "February 2" said: "On February 2, the new rain is dark, and the grass-toothed vegetables are born for a while. The light shirt is ok, Ma Qing is young, and the cross is full of words. " At that time and later, the Han people asked each other about knives and rulers, 100 grains of grain, melon and fruit seeds, welcomed the fruits of wealth, and picked vegetables, went for an outing, welcomed wealth and other activities. Yuan Fei wrote in "The Past Life in China": "On February 2nd, Youth Day, people in Renjun County visited and enjoyed the scattered suburbs. ..... ",and Wang Hao quoted the discipline in Broad Spectrum:" Luoyang customs take February 2 as the Flower Lang Festival, which is also the vegetable picking festival. " After the Ming Dynasty, there were many customs about raising the dragon's head on February 2nd, such as scattering ashes to recruit dragons, helping dragons, smoking insects, avoiding scorpions, shaving the dragon's head and avoiding acupuncture longan, so it was called Dragon Raising Day. Qing Xianfeng's "Wuding County Records": ... February 2 is the Spring Dragon Festival, and the kitchen is as gray as a dragon and snake, and it is called Lucky Dragon. In addition, there are activities to preserve customs, such as rushing to work, trial farming, frying scorpion beans, wearing grass, offering sacrifices to the dragon king, respecting land and grain, marrying women to live in spring, and writing by boys. Buyi people will hold a three-day festival on February 2, mainly to worship the land god. On the day of the festival, every family kills chickens to worship their ancestors and eats two-color (black and white) glutinous rice to pray for the peace of the whole village.

The Festival Customs of Dragon Head Festival

There are many folk activities around the Dragon Head Festival, which are very rich in content, mainly including:

Dragon Head Festival

In the past, the Dragon Head-raising Festival was a day to worship the dragon god. On this day every year, people will go to the Dragon Temple or the riverside to burn incense and sacrifice to the dragon god, praying that the dragon god will turn clouds into rain and bless the harvest. However, in many areas, especially in the south, people still regard the second day of February as the "land public sacrifice day" and hold social sacrifices to worship the land god.

Dust dragon head festival.

This custom has a long history and is still popular in many rural areas. Ash used for spreading ash is usually wood ash, but there are also lime or chaff. The specific practices vary from place to place, as follows: sprinkling ash in front of the door is called "blocking the door to prevent disasters"; Scattering ash in the corner is intended to "destroy the insects"; Scatter the ashes in the yard, make them into circles of different sizes, and symbolically put some whole grains, which are called "hoarding" or "smashing ash" to wish a bumper year; Sprinkle ash on the edge of the well and call it "Huilong" for good weather. Spraying methods vary from place to place. Generally, it starts from the well, meanders all the way, enters the kitchen, surrounds the water tank, and the gray line twists and turns constantly, which is very interesting.

Smoked insects in dragon head festival

In February of the lunar calendar, the weather gets warmer and all kinds of insects start to stir. Some insects are harmful to people's health, so on February 2, people spread pancakes and burn incense in succession, hoping to drive away poisonous insects with smoke.

The dragon head section hits the beam.

It is to beat the beams with wooden sticks or bamboo poles to scare away poisonous insects such as snakes and scorpions, so as not to cause harm. In some places, it is popular to knock on the edge of the kang for the same purpose as knocking on the beam.

Longtaitou ST haircut

There is a saying among the Han people: My uncle died after shaving his head in the first month. Although this statement is groundless and absurd, it has far-reaching influence. Therefore, no matter how busy people are before the Spring Festival, they should take time to get a haircut, and then wait until the day when the dragon looks up. A haircut on February 2nd, commonly known as "shaving the tap", is said to bring good luck for a year, so "shave your head more on this day".

Fried scorpion beans

The popular custom on this day is to fry scorpion beans. Wei county, Laizhou and other places are called "good news", which is homophonic and stinging. It is said that eating fried scorpion beans will not be stung by scorpions for a year. Yuncheng and other places are called "fried scorpion claws", and children sing while eating: "Eat scorpion claws, scorpions don't have to fight." Scorpion beans are generally fried with soybeans. Some are wrapped in sugar noodles, some are soaked in salt water, which is crispy and delicious, and some are fried with noodles and scorpions, with various patterns. Eating scorpion beans can not only open scorpions, but also people say that whoever eats scorpion claws of seven families can live longer. Except for some areas in Jiaodong, this custom is popular in other places on February 2, but melon seeds and popcorn are added to scorpion beans, which is a new development of the custom of frying scorpion beans.