In the Chinese lunar calendar, there is a saying of the rise of the dragon on February 2. The rise of the dragon on February 2 is a very important traditional festival in ancient times. Dragon head up is also known as Green Dragon Festival, spring ploughing Festival, farming Festival and spring Dragon Festival. Dragon 'refers to the seven constellations of the Oriental Canglong in the twenty-eight seasons. At the beginning of the Mao month in mid spring, the' Dragon horn star 'appears on the eastern horizon at dusk, so it is called' dragon head up '. In our country, there are many festival customs and attentions about the rise of the dragon. The small editor of this article will take stock of these festival customs and attentions about the rise of the dragon.
On February 2, the "dragon heads up" farmers pay more attention to it
The second day of the second lunar month is the traditional folk festival 'dragon head Festival', also known as' Qinglong Festival '. Hadaki & middot, member of the working committee of China folk cultural heritage rescue project; Just said that due to the folk legend of 'February 2' and the dragon, plus' waking a sting and ploughing the earth, the spring equinox is connected with the earth ', farmers pay a lot of attention to this day. They place their simple wishes in mundane affairs and hope that this year will be better.
According to some old customs in northern China, after getting up in the morning of 'February 2', farmers will find a long pole to knock on the beam to wake up the 'Dragon', then use plant ash to lead a 'gray Dragon' to the well platform, and then use rice bran to lead a 'Golden Dragon' from the well platform to the water tank; Eat rice cakes and pig head meat for breakfast, spring cakes for lunch and fried beans; At dusk, every family should use the ashes in the stove to spread a circle around the house, called Wai society, in order to keep out all evil deeds and disasters. For those whose relatives are far away from home, this circle must leave a mouth, hoping to return to their hometown as soon as possible.
On this day, everyone has to have a haircut, which means that the 'dragon looks up' has good luck, and haircuts for children are called 'shaving faucets'; Women are not allowed to move needles and threads for fear of hurting 'dragon eyes'; People can't carry water from the well. They should pick their own water urn full on the first day, otherwise they will touch the 'faucet'.
People say 'February 2, the Dragon rises; On this day, farmers are full of hope for the new year. They are excited about the upcoming spring ploughing and sowing, and pray that the legendary 'Dragon' can look up and shake his body to rain, so as to moisten the soil.
On the second day of the second lunar month, folklore is the day when the Dragon rises, also known as the 'spring Dragon Festival'. There is a popular ballad: 'on February 2, the dragon looks up, the big Cang is full, and the small Cang flows.' On this day, people worship the Dragon King with many delicious foods, hoping that it can spread clouds and rain and sprinkle sweet rain.
Ordinary people eat noodles, spring cakes, popcorn and pig head meat on this day. There are different foods in different regions, but most of them are related to dragons. They generally add the title of 'Dragon' to the name of food, such as eating dumplings called 'Dragon ears'; Eating spring cakes is called eating 'Dragon scales'; Eating noodles is called 'dragon beard'; Eating rice is called 'dragon's son'; Eating wonton is called 'Longan'.
Eating spring cakes is called 'eating dragon scales'. A spring cake larger than the palm of your hand is like a piece of dragon scales. Spring cakes are tough and contain many dishes. For example, pickled meat, elbows, smoked chicken, pickled duck, etc. are cut into thin wires with a knife, and equipped with several home fried dishes, such as fried leek sprouts with shredded meat, fried spinach with shredded meat, green bean sprouts cooked with vinegar, plain fried vermicelli, spread eggs, etc. they are rolled into spring cakes together, dipped in shredded shallots and flour sauce drenched with sesame oil. It's really delicious and delicious. When eating spring cakes, the whole family sat around and put the baked spring cakes in the steamer. They were hot and happy.
There is a legend about eating popcorn on the second day of February.
It is said that when Empress Wu became emperor, the Jade Emperor ordered that no rain should fall on the earth for three years. However, the jade dragon in charge of the Tianhe River couldn't bear that the people were affected and starved. There was a heavy rain secretly. After learning that, the Jade Emperor beat the jade dragon in charge of the Tianhe river down to the heaven palace and pressed it under a big mountain. There is also a monument at the foot of the mountain, which reads: 'the Dragon King should suffer the eternal sins of the world if he violates the rules of the sky when he rains. If you want to ascend the Lingxiao Pavilion again, unless the golden beans bloom. " In order to save the Dragon King, people look for flowering golden beans everywhere. On the second day of the second month of the second year, when people were turning over and drying the golden corn seeds, they suddenly remembered that the corn was like golden beans, fried and blossomed, isn't it? So every family exploded popcorn and set up a case to burn incense in the courtyard for the 'flowering golden beans' to be seen by the Dragon King and the Jade Emperor. Knowing that the people were saving it, the dragon king shouted to the Jade Emperor, 'the golden beans are blooming, let me out!' As soon as the Jade Emperor saw that the golden bean blossoms in every house on earth were open, he had to send an order to call the Dragon King back to heaven to continue to bring clouds and rain to the world. Since then, folk customs have formed. On the second day of February, people explode popcorn and fry soybeans.
There is also a saying about eating pig head meat on the second day of February.
Since ancient times, pigs, cattle and sheep have always been used to worship gods. Later, it was simplified to the head of the three animals, and the pig head is one of them. In addition, according to a story recorded in the "notes of Qiu Chi" of the Song Dynasty: after calming Bashu, Wang Zhongling was very hungry, so he broke into a small rural temple, but met a drunken monk. Wang Zhongling was angry and wanted to cut him. Unexpectedly, the monk was not afraid. Wang Zhongling was very strange and turned to him for food, Not long ago, the monk presented a plate of 'steamed pig head' and wrote a poem for this purpose: 'the mouth has long hair, short and fat, and has been eating medicine seedlings in the mountains for a long time. The banana leaves have been wrapped during steaming and watered with apricot paddles when ripe. Red and fresh is called jinpanting. Cooked and soft, it's really worthy of jade sheath selection. If there are no hairy roots, the felt roots will eat the vines. " While eating steamed pig's head, Wang Zhongling was very happy to listen to the funny and unique 'pig's head poem', so he named the monk 'master in Purple'. It seems that pig head is really a delicacy, and it is also an auspicious sign of turning danger into peace. Today, there is a famous dish called "Grilled pig face". After 12 steps, such as material selection, cleaning, spray baking, bubble washing and sauce making, it can be brought to the table after more than ten hours of cooking. " There are three kinds of 'pork face', one is to eat it with original juice; Second, dip in sauce; Third, roll pancakes. Each way of eating has a different taste. " Grilled pig face 'is fat but not greasy, meat and bone are separated, waxy and delicious, which has brought beauty and brain strengthening effects to modern people.' February 2 'eat modern' grilled pig face 'and aftertaste the ancient catering history. It is really a perfect experience of blending contemporary and history.