□ Li Xuepu
Among the many folk festivals, the Spring Dragon Festival is not very impressive, but the customs of this day are interesting. Because of this season, the new year has just ended, the rain is gradually increasing, and the agricultural activities in the field are about to begin, so people also call it the Spring Farmer Festival, the Farmer's Head Festival, and the Dragon Head Festival. There is a farmer's proverb: "On the second of February, the farmers looked up, and everyone in small households made cattle farming." Because "dragon" and "nong" are harmonized, there is also the saying "On the second of February, the dragon looks up". On this day, people should get up early to cook noodles and fried cakes, which means "picking the dragon head" and "eating gentian", praying for a good harvest of grains and smooth wind and rain in the new year.
The legend of the Spring Dragon Festival existed during the fuxi period, the head of the three emperors. The Fuxi clan attached great importance to nongsang and rewarded the cultivated fields. On the second day of February every year, the emperor personally cultivated the land, the empress dowager delivered food, and later the Yellow Emperor, Tang Yao, Xia Yu and so on followed the example of the previous king. During the reign of King Wu of Zhou, he carried forward and flourished, and every second day of the first month of February, a grand ceremony was held to let the civil and military officials personally cultivate one acre and three points of land. Later, the farmers began to plough in the spring from this day and began a year of hard work.
The Eastern Han Dynasty philologist Xu Shen explained the dragon in his book "Explanation of Characters in Speaking Texts". He said: "Dragons, the length of the scale insects, can be mysterious, can be thin and huge, can be long and short, the spring equinox ascends to the sky, the autumn equinox and dives into the abyss..." On the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, spring returned to the northern country, hibernating animals began to recover, which is the earliest record of the custom of the second dragon looking up in February. Later, Shen Bang of the Ming Dynasty wrote in the "Miscellaneous Records of Wanju": "The Wanren called the second of February to raise the head of the dragon. The villagers gently clothed the ash from outside the door into the kitchen, swirled around the water tank, and called it 'leading the dragon back'. ”
So, why is "February 2nd" a "dragon looking up"? There are many more statements and stories. There are folk legends that the dragon is a mascot, in charge of cloud rain, and "February 2" is the day when the dragon wants to ascend to heaven, at this time it is the stinging festival, many places have entered the rainy season, which is a natural law, but the ancients believe that it is the credit of the "dragon". In addition, the dragon has an extremely lofty position in the minds of the ancients, who believed that the dragon is the symbol of the Son of Heaven, a thing of auspiciousness, and the master of the weathering rain. Legend has it that in ancient times, when the Guanzhong region was dry for a long time, the Jade Emperor ordered the East China Sea Dragon to go and sow rain. The little dragon was greedy and burrowed into the river and did not come out. A young man went to the cliff and collected "descending dragon water" to muddy the river. The little dragon emerged from the river to compete with the young man, and the little dragon was defeated and had to sow rain. In fact, the so-called "dragon looking up" refers to the hibernation, the hundred insects began to wake up, so as the saying goes, "On the second of February, the dragon looks up, and the scorpion and centipede all appear." Therefore, the proverb "On the second of February, the dragon looks up" indicates that spring is coming, everything is revived, and the dragon is beginning to move, indicating that the year's agricultural activities are about to begin.
Dragon Heads-up developed from the Sting Festival and the Spring Society Day. Sting and Spring Society are two ancient festivals, especially the sting in the twenty-four solar terms, which have a very long history, and the ancients must have expressed something on the day of each festival. Archaeological data show that more than 6,000 years ago, people in the Central Plains already had a clear concept of the spring equinox, autumn equinox and other solar terms (Feng Shi, "Astronomical Research on Tomb No. 45 in Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan", Cultural Relics, No. 3, 1990). The Book of Rites and Sacrifices says: "Kyushu, the hegemon of the Gonggong clan, was known as Hou Tu (後土), and he was able to level Kyushu, so he thought it was a society." The "Twenty-Ninth Year of Zuo Chuan Zhaogong" contains Cai Mo's words: "The Gonggong clan has a son, Yue You, for the Hou Tu ... After the soil for the community. "Gonggong clan and Gou Long are legendary tribal leaders from 45,000 years ago ("Sentence Dragon" is "Gou Dragon"). The Book of Rites says that people worship and sacrifice the dragon as a shrine god, indicating that the Han worship of the shrine was formed as late as two thousand years ago.
The Song Dynasty once stipulated that the fifth day after Lichun was Chunshe Day, and the fifth Peng Day after Liqiu was Qiushe Day, and the Spring Prayer Autumn Newspaper (Chen Yuanliang's "Chronicle of the Ages" quoted "Tongtian Perpetual Calendar"). The day of sting and the day of the spring society are generally in the february of the lunar calendar, and always within a few days around the second day of the first month of February. Most of the southern provinces regard the second day of the first month of February as the birthday of the land god, and many places in the north also worship the land god on the second day of the first month of February, which indicates that the date of the Spring Society has changed after the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Since the day of the spring every year is uncertain, the day of the spring society is difficult to determine, and it is simplified and clear that it is fixed to the second day of the first month of February, and there is no need to calculate it again.
In the old days, every February 2, many villages would hold temple fairs, singing big plays, playing with dragon lanterns, and making a lot of noise. On the morning of the second day of the first month of February, every household in most parts of the north went to their homes to attract dragons, and there were various ways to attract dragons. In some places in Shandong, Hebei, and Beijing, people go to the river or well with lanterns in the morning to fetch water, and along the way, they also scatter the crumbs such as wheat bran, grain bran, grass and wood ash on the ground in a linear shape, even if the dragon is introduced into the home. After that, incense is burned and offerings are made, and people call this ritual "dragon introduction". After the dragon is introduced, every household makes a dough cake, called "dragon scale cake", and it is said that with scales, the dragon will not be frozen. There are also places to make noodles, called "dragon's whisker noodles", and eating dragon's whisker noodles is to make the dragon strong and powerful. In short, the food on this day is mostly named after a certain part of the dragon to take auspiciousness. Eating dumplings is called "eating dragon ear miscellaneous", eating fried cakes is called "eating gentian", drinking tea is to drink "Longjing tea", and even the action of flaming cakes is also called "dragon turning over".
On the second of February, some pests also woke up. While people celebrate the rise of the dragon, there are also some customary activities to suppress pests.
Photo beams. Shen Da Ling said in "Spring Style": "February 2nd... And with the sacrifice of the remaining candles, all over the walls, there is 'February 2, illuminate the beams, the scorpion centipede has nowhere to hide.' It is said that on the second day of February, people use the remaining candles from the Spring Festival sacrifice to light and illuminate the walls and beams. It is often sung while taking pictures: "On the second of February, look at the beams of the house, the scorpion centipede has nowhere to hide." "to drive out pests. In fact, there is some truth to this, the pests that will be revived are easily fallen after being illuminated by candlelight, and then eliminated. Illuminating the beams and lavenders is actually a cleaning in the early spring season. This custom is described in Liu Ruoyu's "Zhi Zhongzhi" of the Ming Dynasty.
Eat fried beans, also known as "biting worms". Fried beans are divided into salt beans and jelly beans, fried salt beans should first wash the soybeans, and then boil them in brine for a few minutes, dry them and then put them in the pot and stir-fry, so that the fried soybeans are cracked, and they are crisp and not hard to eat. The sautéed jelly beans are also washed and dried first, and then fried in a pot. After the soybeans are cooked, the brown sugar or white sugar is mixed into the beans, and when the sugar melts, it comes out of the pot. The soy is fried in this way, sweet on the outside and fragrant on the inside, crispy and delicious. It is said that eating fried beans is to bite the pest, so that the crops of human beings are no longer harmed by pests. This custom is, of course, unscientific, but it is a wish of the people. Therefore, the custom of biting insects on the second of February has been passed down from generation to generation and is still prevalent today.
In ancient times, working people attached great importance to the "second of February", and they commemorated the "second of February" in various forms, the fundamental reason of which was to assist agricultural production. February of the lunar calendar is the season of crop sowing, in the ancient era of scientific underdevelopment, agricultural cultivation was generally limited by natural conditions, and various sacrifices and prayer activities were the strong desire for a bumper harvest.
There is a New Year painting with the following oil poem printed: "On the second of February, the dragon looked up, and the Son of Heaven cultivated the land and drove the cattle; the lady of the palace came to deliver the meal, and the minister threw away the seeds." Spring ploughing and summer rate the world, grain abundance taiping autumn." This tells the truth.