The origin of February 2

The Spring Festival is also called Dragon Head-lifting Festival, Dragon Head Festival, Dragon Dragon Festival, February 2nd, Square Walking Festival and so on. It is a traditional festival of Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hezhe, Ewenki, Daur and other ethnic groups (mainly Han), which falls on the second day of the second lunar month every year. There is a legend about the origin of the Spring Dragon Festival: More than a thousand years ago, the Jade Emperor didn't like Mrs. Wu Zetian wearing a dragon robe and sitting on a dragon chair, so he told the four dragon kings that it was not allowed to rain on earth for three years. Yu-lung Pai, who is in charge of the Tianhe River, that is, Bai, who is carrying the Tang Priest's Buddhist scriptures in the The Journey to the West, probably suffers from human suffering all the time. He didn't want to see people in the world starve to death because of lack of food, so he went against his destiny and had a rain. As a result, the Jade Emperor pinned him down on a mountain, erected a monument and carved a poem saying, "Jade Dragon Rain violates heaven and should be punished by future generations." If you want to re-enter the Lingxiao Pavilion, unless the golden beans bloom. "Beneficiaries want to save Yulong! But what kind of beans are golden beans? An old woman carries a bag of corn on her back and sells it in the street. She accidentally spilled it. When she saw the golden corn on the ground, people's hearts suddenly lit up: isn't this golden bean? It's just that it bloomed after a stir-fry, so they quickly told each other that on February 2, every household would fry "golden beans" and offer them to hospitals. The mountain where Yulong was suppressed was originally changed by the dust of Taibai Venus. Venus people in Taibai are always dazzled. When they see golden beans blooming everywhere, they put away the dust. As a result, Yulong returned to the blue sky, drained the Tianhe River, and was showered with good rain. When the Jade Emperor learned this, he criticized Taibin, although he was a little angry. After all, he is helpless. Since then, the custom of frying popcorn on February 2 has become popular. Some also sang while frying: "On February 2nd, the dragon looked up, the big warehouse was full, and the small warehouse flowed. "From the point of The Journey to the West and Bai's mention, this legend will not come into being too early. Its redeeming feature is that the Spring Festival is related to dragons, which means that this festival is to commemorate the Jade Dragon, and this Jade Dragon is a good dragon that is not afraid of power and benefits the people. In fact, the origin of the Spring Festival is related to the fright in the 24 solar terms. The shock is around the second day of the second lunar month. Sting and animal hibernation are also an adaptation of animals to the external environment of cold winter and insufficient food. In spring and February, the weather gets warmer and the spring thunder comes gradually. Invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles and many mammals that have been dormant for a winter have been disturbed. They want to get out of their hiding places and exercise their muscles. As the "Twenty-four solar terms" said: "February Festival ... everything is shocked, shocked by thunder, so it is a sting, and it is a sting that escapes. "In the dragon's adaptation, many animals have the habit of hibernation, such as snakes, crocodiles, lizards, bears and so on. With the arrival of spring, they wake up from their lethargy, climb out of their caves and start looking for food. We say that the accommodation process of the dragon is vague, which is not only manifested in the diversity of accommodation objects, that is, the diversity of materials, but also in the fact that the results of accommodation and accommodation objects can be replaced with each other under certain conditions. This is why people not only refer to the holy things put together as dragons, but also sometimes refer to snakes, crocodiles, lizards, pigs, horses and cows as dragons. Dragons mentioned in ancient books, such as "livestock dragons", "hunting dragons", "royal dragons", "killing dragons" and "eating dragons", are of course not dragons, but some objects of dragons, such as crocodiles, snakes, horses and fish. Similarly, when people say that dragons look up, they actually mean snakes, crocodiles, lizards and other animals look up; Conversely, saying that these animals look up means that dragons look up. The object of the dragon's accommodation is not only animals, but also astronomical phenomena. Clouds, lightning, rainbows, astrology, etc. It's all dragon stuff. The so-called dragon looks up, that is, the dragon on the ground and the dragon in the sky attract and meet each other, or it can be said that the dragon on the ground has stood up with its head held high and is about to fly into the sky. It will become a rolling cloud, omnipotent lightning, magnificent rainbow and bright stars. Clouds, thunder and lightning, rainbows, etc. Are all astronomical phenomena closely related to rain? In other words, as soon as the dragon looks up, the spring rain, which is as expensive as oil, will pour down on the earth, moisten all directions, and spring ploughing production will be in full swing. Some researchers believe that the so-called "dragon heads up" is actually "Long Xing runs through the eastern sky". In ancient times, people used twenty-eight nights to indicate the positions of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky, and used the cycle of the stars to grasp the changes of seasons, thus "observing the sky and measuring the time" to guide farming. Among the twenty-eight lodgings, the seven Oriental lodgings, namely Jiao, Kang, Di, Fang, Xin, Wei and Ji, are all dragon-shaped, and the two stars in the corner (Jiao 1 and Jiao 2) are just like the double horns of a dragon. On the night of the second day of the second lunar month, two "dragon horns" will slowly rise from the eastern horizon, so they are called "dragons look up". Accordingly, it can be considered that the Spring Festival marks the beginning of agricultural activities; The dragon also shows its side as a "agricultural god". When did the Spring Festival originate? People generally trace back to the "Zhonghe Festival" in the Tang Dynasty. Zhonghe Festival was promulgated and implemented by Tang Dezong in the fifth year of Zhenyuan (AD 790). The reason is that "Spring will happen, and in the middle of the month, heaven and earth will be in harmony to make it shine and help prosperity", so "February 1 ST is the Zhonghe Festival to replace the dark day of the first month". What are the activities of this festival? " Let hundreds of officials enter the agricultural books, farmers offer glutinous seeds, princes wear spring clothes, scholars ask about their heritage with knives and rulers, and village communities make neutralization wine to offer sacrifices to the mang to pray for the Spring Valley. "So, what does this Zhonghe Festival have to do with the Spring Festival? I think so, but it's not direct enough. Reasons: First, the Sino-Japanese Festival means to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and to encourage agriculture, so does the Spring Dragon Festival. Second, the Zhonghe Festival worships Gou Mang, the god of spring, which is related to dragons. Gou Mang, also known as "Ju Mang" Shan Hai Jing. Overseas East longitude "cloud:" Ju Mang is in the East, with birds and masks, riding Ssangyong. " "Five classics of justice. The Moon Order says, "The main book is Ju Mang. When the wood was born, the sentence was curved and awned, so it was Ju Mang. " This "sentence has a horned corner" is also close to the shape of a dragon. The historical book that accurately records the Dragon Boat Festival during the Spring Festival is Xiong's "Analysis of Tianjin Wei Years" in Yuan Dynasty: "On February 2nd, the dragon looked up. On the fifth watch, every household drew a white road by the well with lime, and then went directly into their rooms. Men and women don't have to sweep the floor, which scares longan. " In this way, at the latest in the Yuan Dynasty, the folk custom of celebrating the Spring Festival has been formed. Where did the Spring Festival originate? As we said, the Spring Dragon Festival is related to the awakening of the twenty-four solar terms. It originated in the Yellow River Basin and was created and established by the working people in China who live in the temperate climate in the northern half of the earth (especially in Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province) for the needs of agricultural production, according to the different positions of the earth in the orbit when it orbits the sun. According to this, it can be judged that the Spring Dragon Festival originated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin. As for the Spring Festival customs in the Yangtze River basin in the south and the Liaohe River basin in the northeast, it is the result of the migration, spread and evolution of folk customs with the people's footsteps. There are many folk activities on the Spring Festival, including: 1. Sprinkle ash to attract dragons, and draw water to attract dragons; 2. Beat beams to repel insects, light candles to illuminate insects and smoke insects; 3. Sacrifice the dragon god; 4. Sacrifice ancestors; 5. marry a wife and give birth to spring; 6. Eat dragon noodles, dragon cakes and dragon cakes; Eat fried beans, pig heads, etc. 7. Shave your head and get a haircut; 8. A boy decorated with dragons; 9. Open the pen and break the mask; 10. Disable needle scissors; 1 1. Try to break the soil with a plow; 12. Hold temple fairs, and so on. These folk activities are different due to different regions and ecological environments. For example, the north eats more pasta, beans and pig's head meat, and the south eats more rice such as zongzi and Ciba; There are many sacrifices made by dragon gods in the north and land gods in the south. The cultural implications of many folk customs of the Spring Dragon Festival can be summarized as follows: 1. Regard dragons as the gods of water conservancy, agriculture and spring; Second, regard the dragon as the bane of insects, the god of exorcism and the god of good luck; Third, regard the dragon as a symbol of ancestors; Fourth, treat people as the embodiment of Jackie Chan. Each article can cite examples, such as "regarding the dragon as a symbol of ancestors"-according to legend, February 2nd is also the day when Xuanyuan Huangdi was born in the Dragon Gorge on the Qushui River in huangling county, Shaanxi Province, and there is also "Xuanyuan Huangdi Style" (Historical Records. TianGuanShu) and "Far East Yi Long, ancestral roots in Huangling". So on this day, there was a folk activity to worship the Yellow Emperor. There are two kinds of sacrifices of the Yellow Emperor: public sacrifices and folk sacrifices. Tomb-Sweeping Day is generally a public sacrifice, and the Spring Dragon Festival and the Double Ninth Festival are generally folk sacrifices. Whether it is a public sacrifice or a folk sacrifice, there are various performances such as playing dragon flags, playing dragon drums, dancing dragons and flying dragons.