Spring dragon festival origin, custom!

The "Spring Dragon Festival" is a traditional Chinese custom, which is an alternative name for the Dragon's Head (February 2 of the lunar calendar).

Dragon Carrying Head is a traditional Chinese folk festival. Every year, on the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, it is said to be the day when dragons carry their heads. It is celebrated as "Dragon's Head Festival" to honor the dragon and pray for rain so that God will bless the harvest. "February 2, the dragon carries the head", ancient astronomy, ancient China with twenty-eight hosts to indicate the position of the sun, moon and stars in the sky and judge the season, every February after the spring breeze, dusk, "Longjiao star (i.e., the corner of the hosts of a star and the corner of the hosts of the second star)," on the horizon from the East The first time I saw this, I saw the dragon's head, so I called it "Dragon's Head".

History:

The second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, the reason why the Dragon Heads Up Festival, in fact, with the ancient celestial phenomena. In the old days, people divided the stars near the ecliptic into twenty-eight groups, indicating the position of the sun, moon and stars in the sky, commonly known as the "twenty-eight hosts", as a reference for celestial observation. The "twenty-eight hosts" are divided into four groups according to the four directions of east, west, south, north and south, resulting in the "four elephants": the eastern Canglong, the western white tiger, the southern Vermilion Bird, the northern Xuanwu.

"Twenty-eight hosts" in the corner, hyper, on the whole, room, heart, tail, Kei seven hosts form a dragon-shaped star, people call it the East Canglong, which the corner of the hosts on behalf of the dragon's horns, 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 heart, the tail of the hosts and the Kei hosts on behalf of the dragon's tail. In the book, there is a record that the dragon is "able to be dark and bright, fine and huge, short and long, ascends to the sky at the spring equinox, and dives into the abyss at the fall equinox", which is actually a description of the changes in the astrological signs of the eastern dragon!

Local Customs:

February 2nd Dragon is also land birth, the landlord, also known as the God of Fude, is y loved by all parties around the people of the gods. Southern "February 2" dragon head still follow the custom of sacrificing society, such as in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other regions, both similar to the Dragon Head Festival customs, but also to sacrifice the society's customs based on the new "February 2" custom, the South generally worship the land god.

1. Fried corn: Legend has it that the tradition of frying corn on the second day of February every year is to commemorate the righteousness of the dragon to relieve the suffering of the drought on earth, even at the expense of offending the rules of heaven. Legend has it that the Jade Dragon was imprisoned by the Jade Emperor because he could not bear to see the people suffer from drought and helped them to bring down rain, and made a rule that he would only be released if the golden beans blossomed. The people were grateful for the Jade Dragon's act of righteousness and gathered together to fry corn, which looked like the blossoming of golden beans and caused the guardian of the Great White Star to look at it wrongly, and released the Jade Dragon. The tradition of frying corn on the second day of the second month of every year has been preserved.

2. Shaving the dragon's head: refers to the second day of February haircut, children's haircut, called shaving the "head of joy", by the auspicious time of the dragon head, blessing the children healthy growth, grow up to be outstanding; adults haircut, the old and welcome the new, hoping to bring good luck, the new year smoothly.

3. writing: the third day of the second month of the lunar calendar for Wenchang (master of the God of Fame) birthday, the old days to let the children open the pen to write on this day, take the dragon head of the auspicious omen, for the children to be the crown, the point of vermilion sand enlightenment wise, implying that the children's eyes and heart bright, I wish the children grow up to break the text of literacy. The ceremony of opening the brush is the first big gift in life, and is a form of traditional Chinese initiation for children to begin to learn to read and write.

Expanded:

. strong>

Spring Dragon Festival activities around

Shandong

China's Shandong and other areas of the Spring Dragon Festival, with the stove smoke on the ground to draw a dragon, commonly known as the introduction of money dragon. The common belief that attracting the dragon has two purposes: one is to invite the dragon to come back, Xingyunbu rain, praying for a good agricultural harvest, and the second is that the dragon is the god of all insects, the dragon came, all insects will hide, which is beneficial to human health, crop growth. Nantong, Jiangsu Province, folk useful flour production of peach, livestock, steamed and inserted in the bamboo sticks, and then inserted in the field at night, that this is for the god of insects and ancestor worship food, praying for ancestors to drive away pests, but also hope that the god of insects do not jeopardize the crops. Shandong Rizhao Weifang area of rural areas will use grass ash on the ground to paint the barn granary, sprinkle grains in the barn, praying for a new year full of grain. And on this day fried sugar beans, (sugar, rock sugar and peanuts fried together) to eat sugar beans.

Beijing

Beijing folk food, a kind of thinly-breaded pastry, also known as pancake. Every year, on the day of the first spring, Beijingers eat spring pancakes, which is called "biting spring".　On the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, which is the day when the dragon raises its head as the old Chinese proverb says ("February 2, the dragon raises its head"), Beijingers also eat spring pancakes on this day, which is called "eating dragon scales".　The spring pancake is larger than the pancake for roast duck, and it is tough (Beijingers say it should have "bone strength") because it has to be rolled with a lot of vegetables. In the old days, when eating spring pancakes, it was important to go to the box store to order "Su Pan" (also known as box vegetables). The box store is a meat store with sauce, and the shopkeeper sends people to deliver the dishes to your home. Beijing people's spring pancake is concerned about a few small dishes: cold bean sprouts, spread eggs, Tianfu No. elbows in the sauce.

Shanxi region

In some places in northwestern Jin, the money-inducing dragon chooses a large tree or a boulder and sprinkles a circle around it with gray thread. Then use a red line to tie a copper coin, first put the copper coin in the gray line circle, hand pull the line to lead home, covered with a container that is completed.

Shanxi region

Shanxi Xi'an region on this day, usually grandmother (uncle's family) to nephews (daughter) to send popcorn and meat and potatoes bun. Mom would fry qizi beans the day before and prepare them for the family. Qizi beans are made with oil, water and flour, then cut into small cubes and fried in oil. In some places, peanuts are fried together with the qizi beans.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia - Dragon Head Carrying