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What festival is Zhonghe Festival? Time and origin of Zhonghe Festival

Zhonghe Festival is a traditional festival in China. It is also known as dragon rise Festival, spring Dragon Festival and Green Dragon Festival. But many people don't know about Zhonghe Festival. When is Zhonghe Festival? How did Zhonghe Festival come from? Let's talk about the time and origin of Zhonghe Festival. Let's have a look.

What day is Zhonghe Festival: Friday, March 8, the second day of February in the lunar calendar

Zhonghe Festival, a traditional Chinese Folk Festival, is on the second day of February in the lunar calendar, but the date at that time was on the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar. With the evolution of history, it was changed to the second day of February. It began in the fifth year of Zhenyuan (789) by Li Shi, Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty. Because the second day of the second lunar month is "dragon head up" (also known as spring Dragon Festival and Green Dragon Festival), Chinese people often mix Zhonghe Festival and dragon head up into one festival. It means that at the beginning of spring, everything will recover and the rain weather will increase. Zhonghe festival originated from the activities of offering sacrifices to gods in primitive society. There are folk customs such as offering sacrifices to spring dragons. The diet is often named after the word 'Dragon'.

On May 23, 2011, Zhonghe festival was included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list with the approval of the State Council.

According to textual research, as early as the Tang Dynasty, the second day of February of the lunar calendar had the nature of a decree. On this day, people are invited to go on an outing in the wild, which is called 'welcoming the rich'; By the way, dig some wild vegetables and take them home to have a taste. It's called 'picking vegetables'.

In the Song Dynasty, February 2 gradually evolved into a formal Festival, called vegetable picking Festival and outing Festival. This was reflected and recorded in some poems and documents at that time. For example, Zhang Lei of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote a poem entitled "February 2 vegetable picking Festival, heavy rain can't go out". Chen Yuanliang of the Southern Song Dynasty quoted "superfluous records in the pot" as saying: "in the customs of Sichuan, February 2 was used as the outing Festival."

However, in February 2 and its activities in the Tang and Song Dynasties, we can't see the shadow of "dragon head up". It was in the Yuan Dynasty that February 2 was associated with "dragon head up". When describing the customs in the capital region, Xiong mengxiang's book "analysis of Jin Zhi" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty mentioned: "February 2 is called the rise of the dragon. At five o'clock, each family used lime to lead the white road around the well into the house. Men and women didn't have to sweep the floor. They were afraid of the dragon's eyes. " So far, this is the earliest written material that we can see to record 'February 2, dragon head up'. According to this material, it can be concluded that the dragon head up festival was formed in the Yuan Dynasty.

Some folklorists speculate that the dragon rise festival was first formed in the Yellow River Basin, and then gradually spread to other regions, so that most parts of China have this festival, even some ethnic minorities have this festival.

From the name of the festival, there are great differences among regions. In addition to the name of dragon head up Festival, we also know dragon head up day, dragon head up, spring Dragon Festival, Green Dragon Festival, dragon head Festival, etc. generally, people in many areas are used to taking the festival period as the name of the festival, which is directly called February 2.

On February 2, there are also many taboos among traditional people. For example, 'don't draw water in the morning' for fear of touching the 'dragon head' and provoking the Dragon King's anger; In addition, women are not allowed to use needles and thread to prevent accidentally stabbing the 'dragon eye' and piercing the 'dragon head'.

With the development of society, the dragon rise Festival, as a traditional festival formed in the agricultural era, has gradually faded out of modern people's life. However, in recent years, with its rich folk activities and profound cultural meaning, the tradition of February 2 dragon rise folk festival has gradually returned to the vision of the public.