Essay | Hou Lizhi: Another Year of "February 2nd"

It's another year of "February 2nd"

Text/ Hou Lizhi

(Web Photo)

The second day of the first month of the second month of the lunar calendar is the Zhonghe Festival, commonly known as the "Second of February", which is a traditional folk festival in the mainland. Legend has it that this day is the day when the Dragon King who is in charge of the clouds and rain looks up, the Dragon King will wake up and look up on this day, and give the clouds and rain, nourish the world's fertile fields, bring auspicious auspicious omens to the people, since ancient times, people will "the dragon looks up" season as an auspicious day to pray for blessings, so the folk have the proverb "February two dragons look up". Its origin is related to the ancient people's understanding of the stars and farming culture, the ancients called the emergence of the seven residences of the dragon on the eastern horizon in mid-spring as "dragon head". "February 2nd", also known as "Spring Ploughing Festival", is not only a traditional folk festival in the mainland, but also an important season in the mainland farming culture, marking the spring thunder, the increase of rain, the recovery of all things, spring ploughing began, after which it is a good time for all things to grow, and people have begun a year of hard work.

When I was a child, the deepest memories of "February 2" were fried beans and noodle eggs. Adults often say that after eating fried beans, they will not be bitten by insects, because February 2 is connected with "stings", all kinds of small insects gradually awaken, eating fried beans can prevent the bite of insects, at that time it felt that the beans were a very magical thing, as if it was given the function of resisting the invasion of hundreds of insects, and it felt that after eating, it could become the "poison inviolable" body in martial arts novels. The raw material of the stir-fried beans is mainly soybeans, the soybeans are selected clean, placed in a dry pot and stir-fried directly over low heat until cooked. The fried beans are crispy and crispy, and the aroma of the chewing is particularly unforgettable. At that time, while watching adults stir-fry the soybeans in the pot, while anxiously waiting for the "delicious" out of the pot, it felt a particularly happy thing. There are different legends about fried beans, one of which is that in ancient times, there was a king who missed the time of the sacrifice to the heavens, and the Jade Emperor ordered the Dragon King not to give rain to the human world, resulting in a great drought. The Dragon King took pity on all things, so he disobeyed the will of the Jade Emperor, privately rained, violated the Heavenly Rule and was beaten down by the Jade Emperor, pressed under a big mountain, and carved an inscription on the mountain: "The Jade Dragon rains against the heavenly rules, and should be subjected to the sins of the world." If you want to re-ascend to the Lingxiao Pavilion, the moment the golden beans bloom. "The people were very anxious, looking everywhere for flowering golden beans, but they could not find the flowering golden beans. On the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, when an old man was collecting grain at home, his eyes suddenly drifted over the golden soybeans, and he was shocked, are they not like "golden beans"? He hurriedly poured the soybeans into the pot, added firewood and stirred them, accompanied by a crackling sound, the soybeans burst open, as if they had blossomed, "Golden beans blossom, golden beans blossom!" So people rushed to tell each other, every household was busy frying soybeans, beans split into flowers, people put the fried "golden beans" on the offering table. The Jade Emperor saw that the "golden beans" of "blossoming" were everywhere in the world, and was touched by the sincerity of the people, pardoned the Dragon King, and ordered him to continue to rain for the people and benefit the people. Since then, every year on the second day of February, the custom of stir-frying beans has been passed down. "February 2" also has a "fried goods", that is, "fried noodle eggs", the good noodles, add saccharin to knead well, roll long strips, and then use a knife to cut into pearl-sized chunks (noodle eggs), fried noodle eggs must be fried with dry and fine sand, with a fine sieve of sand, put in the pot slowly stir-fry, when a certain temperature is reached, put in the noodle eggs, keep stir-frying, until cooked through, although it is fried with sand, but after frying with a fine sieve together with sand and noodle eggs sieved several times, the sieved noodle eggs are not "tooth mounds" at all. And it's particularly crispy and delicious.

On the way to school, the pockets of the little friends' clothes are full of "fried beans" and "scrambled noodle eggs", while eating and showing off how delicious they are, everyone will taste each other, and it is so fragrant to eat. Sometimes there will be a "small competition", take out a bean or noodle egg, throw it high in the sky, look up, catch it with your mouth, and see who picks up accurately and picks up more. When I think about it now, I feel that my appetite was particularly good at that time, and my stomach was never filled. Yesterday, I bought some fried beans and fried noodle eggs in the supermarket, the taste and style are more than before, but I always feel that the taste is different from the taste I ate in my childhood, probably missing some memories of the taste, maybe a lot of things are the best in the beginning.

"February 2" also has the custom of ashes hoarding (grain hoarding), in the early morning of the second day of February, people use the grass and wood ash under their stoves, hold it with an iron shovel, take people as the center of the circle, take the iron shovel handle as the radius, use a small wooden stick to beat the shovel handle, scatter a circle on the ground, or hold a handful of grain, or take some change to put it inside, implying that the family's grain harvest and wealth are rolling in. It is said that scattering grass and wood ash also has the effect of smoking insects to ward off evil spirits, after the sting, scorpions, millipedes and other poisonous insects wait for the opportunity to move, in the yard and corner of the wall sprinkled with some grass and wood ash has the effect of repelling insects.

The first two days of February "dragon head up", known as the custom of "shaving the dragon head" (haircut), there is a folk proverb "February two shave the dragon head, a year has a spiritual head", because the first two days of February for the dragon to raise their heads to ascend to heaven, people think that on this day to shave the head, a year will be a year of good luck, good things. The reason why it is said to be "shaving the dragon's head", mainly to ask for an auspicious, borrow the dragon to raise the head of the haircut, resign the old and welcome the new, pray for blessings, hope to bring good luck, so "February 2" haircut gradually became a local custom, every second day of February, barbershops are customers, business is booming.

It is worth mentioning that the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games coincided with the opening of the "Second Dragon on February", full of good luck and auspiciousness. The Olympic flame will once again be lit at the "Bird's Nest", and the spirit of the Paralympic athletes who bravely push the limits deserves our admiration and looks forward to their impressive results.

"On February 2, the new rain was sunny, and the grass sprouts were born for a while. Light shirt thin horse spring young, cross tsu head line. The poet Bai Juyi's "February 2nd" portrays a beautiful picture of spring, green fields, and spring outings. The years have changed, and the folklore has remained the same. Chinese traditional festivals, including "February 2nd", are China's cultural inheritance for thousands of years, rich in history, rooted in the Chinese nation's thousands of years of agricultural civilization, not only contain our national feelings and spiritual blood, but also carry the memories of Yanhuang descendants of strong nostalgia.

It's another year of "February 2nd", greeting the spring breeze in February, let's go on a date with a beautiful spring.

【About the Author】Hou Lizhi, a native of Gaotang, Shandong, loves literature and likes to record life with words, and sometimes his works are found in newspapers and periodicals and online platforms.