What are the folklore in Nanping

Zhanghu Township: July 7, "Snake Festival"

Introduction On the seventh day of the seventh month, most places have a traditional "Tanabata" festival, but in Nanping, folklore is very different. For example, the villagers of Zhanghu Township are celebrating the traditional "Snake Festival".

Body Early in the morning, the local villagers will be a huge python and the snake god Lian Gong from the "Snake King Temple" to invite parade, they prayed for the wind and rain, a good harvest, and the peace of the family. Villagers are each holding a snake, followed in the middle of the street team, the scene is very spectacular, attracting many spectators to stop and enjoy. Many foreign tourists rushed to Zhanghu Town with their families early in the morning to celebrate this annual event with the villagers***.

(Contemporaneous) Fuzhou tourists: this is the first time I heard, so I came to see. Will not be afraid, will feel the feeling of snakes wrapped around the body. Zhanghu Town is a thousand-year-old town in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, the local villagers use the snake as a totem of worship, they worship the snake as a god, do not hit the snake, avoid eating snake meat, and when they encounter the snake also take the initiative to make way for it. Every year on the eve of the seventh day of the first month, the villagers will catch the snake stored in the Snake King Temple to raise, to the seventh day of the parade activities, after the end of the snake tour, everyone will be small snakes back to nature, while the python foster in the Nine Peaks Mountain Zoo.

It is understood that the Zhanghu Snake Culture Festival, originated in the local snake king temple to welcome the god of the race, is a traditional custom of the ancient Min Yue culture. 2005 Zhanghu snake folklore was included in the first batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage list.

The representative of folk culture in northern Fujian - Zhanghu Snake Culture. Zhanghu snake culture has a long history and has profoundly influenced local people's life, beliefs and spiritual culture for thousands of years. So far, Zhanghu still retains the primitive and simple Snake King Temple, complete folk activities such as snake lamps, snake god races, etc., and there is a Snake Museum, which is of high value for research and exploitation, especially praised by experts and scholars in Japan, Taiwan, Beijing and other countries at home and abroad.

Camphor Lake Snake Festival. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar Zhanghu Town villagers will be held to welcome the snake activities to pray for the snake God to keep safe forever. Snake Festival is divided into snake cultural origin, the snake king's symbolic body, the ceremony of honoring the snake, the return of the snake to the four parts of the formation of a unique spring and autumn three sacrifices to honor the snake folklore system.

Camphor Lake Snake King Temple. Located in Zhanghu town east of the pier, brick and wood structure of the Qing Dynasty building, for the heavy eaves overhanging style. The temple is different from other temples in that its eaves at the head of the carving into the head of a snake, realistic form. The Snake King Temple is also known as "Lian Gong Temple" and "Fu Qing Tang".

Local people are not afraid of snakes? Children also play with snakes very intimately? Being entangled by snakes is a kind of good luck

When you come to the thousand-year-old town of Zhanghu Town, Yanping District, Nanping, you feel as if you are at the Baidu Mountain where Ouyangfeng wrote about in Jin Yong's novel. Here still retains a quaint folk cultural activity - snake sacrifice. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the town held a grand welcome to the God race snake activities. Yesterday, this reporter recorded with the lens of this folklore has been included in the provincial intangible cultural heritage list.

At 4:30 a.m., the town's southeast, northwest and north are ringing the salute, to meet the god of the snake race began. 6:30 a.m., the Snake King Temple inside and outside of the people gathered. The local snake tamer, a respected elder, is called the "Snake King", and he presides over the ceremony. Before, the villagers went to the mountains to catch back the snake, stored in the Snake King Temple in the small mouth porcelain cans or barrels, raised to the first seven days of the day, in order to race the snake with. After a simple ceremony, the snake king to the villagers to distribute snakes. Just see four young men forward, one led a 3-meter-long 50 pounds of python, children are excited to rush up to grab the head of a small snake. The largest python, was named "Snake Saint", weighing more than 60 pounds, it is difficult for people to control, have to be placed in a cage by four people to push the trip.

Chen Xuesong, a 76-year-old snake king, said the locals respect snakes very much, and everyone in the town will basically "play" with snakes, and children have a sense of closeness to snakes since they were young. Snake taming should pay attention to the technology, grabbing the snake, the hand can not be big, gently pinch, and then prepare a wet towel, every few minutes, give it a wipe, cool down, "you wait for them to be comfortable, they will also be obedient." The parade begins, some people carry the statue of the god, some people sound a gong to open the way, some people carry flags, children are formed into weapons and waist drums, the old people play into the soldiers, shackled prisoners, and so on. The snake race team will have a snake in their hands, either in their hands, or wrapped around their shoulders, or coiled around their chests and necks. During the procession, small snakes can be handled, but the big python is very heavy and has to be carried by two people after walking for a certain period of time. The team passed by the place, each family set up in front of the incense, firecrackers, at the same time in front of the house on a pot of water, such as the snake race people put the snake into the water to wash, so that it is cool for a while. In the process of the parade, residents and tourists have gone up to touch the python, play with small snakes, and snakes to have a close contact, take pictures.

After the snake race ceremony, people will take the live snakes to the Minjiang River and release them, praying that the snake god will bring people a good year of "peace and good luck, and a bumper crop". Because the python is a state-protected animal, the python is no longer released, but fostered in Nanping city, the next year and then take back to participate in the ceremony.

Zhanghu Town is located in the southernmost tip of northern Fujian, located in Yanping, Youxi, Gutian, Minqing and other four districts and counties, is the largest market town in the middle reaches of the Min River. Zhanghu Chong Snake Festival is scheduled every year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which can not help but think, Chong Snake Festival and Valentine's Day, there is no origin between? "There is no connection between the Chongsnake Festival and the story of the Cowherd and the Weaving Maiden." Zhanghu Town, cultural station Wang Shangshu stationmaster said, Fujian is known as "Min", "Shuowen Jiezi" in the expression "Min, Southeast Vietnam, snake species, from the insect door sound. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Minzhong ancestors all over the world believe in the snake god as the god of ancestors. In the Minjiang River Basin snake cultural circle, Zhanghu Town, complete and primitive snake customs have been retained to date, Zhanghu people to snake as a totem, they do not hit the snake, avoid eating snake meat, encountering snakes, but also take the initiative to get out of the way