What is the Dragon's Head Festival

Dragon Carrying Heads (February 2, Lunar Calendar), also known as the Spring Plowing Festival, Agricultural Festival, Green Dragon Festival, Spring Dragon Festival, etc., is a traditional Chinese folk festival. The "dragon" refers to the twenty-eight stars in the east of the Canglong seven stars, every year in the middle of spring at the beginning of the month of Mao (the bucket refers to the east), "Longjiaoxing" from the eastern horizon, so it is known as "Dragon Head Raising

"Dragon's head" means that Yang Qi is born, everything is full of vitality. Therefore, since ancient times, people in the dragon head season, will be held in honor of the dragon to pray for rain, release, in order to seek a year of auspicious harvest, and will be the dragon head season as a day of good luck.

In China, there is a saying that "on February 2, we worship the village community; when the dragon carries the head, we pray for a good harvest; on August 2, we offer sacrifices to the village hall; when the dragon closes its tail, we send the dragon back". From the festival, the beginning of the second month of the lunar calendar, is in the "rain", "hibernation" and "spring equinox" between, many places in southern China has begun to enter the rainy season. As the saying goes, "If the dragon doesn't raise its head, the sky doesn't rain".

In the ancient gods genealogy, the dragon is a god of the sea, in charge of rainfall, the amount of rainfall is directly related to the year's crop failure, therefore, in order to get the dragon god rain, the dragon raised its head in front of the Dragon Temple to set up the offerings, held a grand worship ceremony, while singing opera to entertain the gods; respect for the dragon to pray for rain, releasing the year's auspicious harvest; there are some places in the Dragon Festival have There are also some places that have the activity of "starting the dragon boat" on the Dragon Head Festival.

Origin of the festival:

The saying of "Dragon's Head Raising" comes from the ancient astronomy, in the ancient times, people chose the twenty-eight groups of stars near the equator of the ecliptic as the coordinates, which were used as the reference for observing the sky. Ancient people according to the orbit and position of the sun, moon and stars, the ecliptic near the stars are divided into twenty-eight groups, commonly known as "twenty-eight hosts".

"Lodging" means living, because they are ringed in the sun, the moon, five-star quadrilateral, very much like the sun, the moon, five-star lodging place, so called "lodging". "The twenty-eight lodges are divided into four groups according to the four directions of east, west, south, north and south, resulting in the "four elephants".

The seven hosts in the east are called: "Horn, hyper, 氐、房、心、尾、箕", the seven hosts form a complete dragon-shaped star, people call it the "Eastern Dragon", in which the corner of the hosts on behalf of the dragon's horns, the hyper hosts on behalf of the dragon's throat, on behalf of the hosts on behalf of the dragon's claws, the heart of the hosts on behalf of the dragon's claws, the heart of the hosts on behalf of the dragon's claws. The Dragon's claws, the heart, the tail, and the mines represent the dragon's tail.

During the winter, the seven constellations of the Dragon are hidden under the northern horizon. In mid-spring (between the hibernation and the vernal equinox), the Horned Dragon (the first and second stars of the Horned Dragon) emerges from the eastern horizon, and at this time, the entire body of the Dragon is still hidden below the horizon, only the first reveal of the Horned Dragon, and is therefore called "the Dragon Raising its Head".

Mid-spring and raised his head, mid-summer and flying, mid-autumn and submerged. All refers to this Canglong seven hosts in the sky of the hidden changes, is not really an animal dragon in the change.