Spring Festival (Dragon Raises its Head)

According to folklore, every second day of the second lunar month is the day when the Dragon King, who is in charge of heavenly sexuality, looks up. After that, the rain will gradually increase. Therefore, this day is called "Spring Festival". It is widely circulated in northern China that "on February 2, the dragon looked up; The big warehouse is full and the small warehouse flows. " Folk proverbs.

Whenever the Spring Festival comes, in most parts of northern China, every family carries lanterns to fetch water from wells or rivers in the morning, and when they get home, they light a fire, burn incense and offer offerings. In ancient times, people called this ceremony "attracting dragons". On this day, every household will eat noodles, fried oil cakes and popcorn, which are compared to "picking the dragon's head", "eating gentian", "golden beans bloom, the dragon king ascends to heaven, the clouds are raining and the grains are abundant" to show good luck.

There is a fairy tale about the origin of the Spring Dragon Festival in northern China: Wu Zetian became emperor, which annoyed the Jade Emperor and told the Four Seas Dragon King that it was forbidden to rain on the earth for three years. Soon, the Dragon King, who was in charge of Tianhe, listened to the cries of the people, watched the people starve to death, and worried that human life would be cut off, so he went against the jade emperor's will and sent rain for the sky. When the Jade Emperor learned that the Dragon King had been knocked down to earth and was crushed under a big mountain to suffer, a monument was erected on the mountain: "The Dragon King's rain violated heaven and should be punished for eternal life; If you want to return to the Lingxiao Pavilion, unless the golden beans bloom. "

In order to save the Dragon King, people searched everywhere for golden beans in full bloom. On the second day of February of the following year, when people were drying corn seeds, they thought the corn looked like golden beans. It blooms when it's fried. Isn't it golden beans? Every household popped popcorn and put a case in the yard to burn incense for the flowering "golden beans". The Dragon King looked up and knew that it was the people who saved it. He shouted to the jade emperor, "The golden beans are blooming, let me out quickly!" ; As soon as the Jade Emperor sees the golden bean curd in the yard of every household in the world, he will send a letter to the Dragon King, asking him to return to the sky and continue to give rain to the world. Since then, people have formed a habit. On the second day of February, people eat popcorn.

Art China

In fact, after February of the lunar calendar, the "rain" solar term will come, and the lack of rain in winter will end, and the rainfall will gradually increase, which is originally the characteristic of the monsoon climate in North China.