Long-term commitment to the domestic and foreign Linqu people cooperation and friendship of the physical platform, welcome to pay attention!
Linqu County town street cadre contact information: Chengguan Street | Dongcheng Street | Yeyuan Street |
【Folk Customs】
On The second of February, the dragon was killed
Yang Daoming
Dragon hunting is one of the main customs of the local people to celebrate the second day of February.
The dragon is a majestic sacred thing in the minds of our Chinese nation. The ancients believed that the shape of the dragon had nine characteristics: snake head, antlers, rabbit eyes, cow ears, horse neck, mirage, carp scales, eagle claws, tiger paws, with eighty-one scales on the back, beard next to the mouth, pearls under the chin, and reverse scales under the throat. Xu Shen said in "Explaining The Interpretation of Texts and Characters": "Dragons, the scales of insects, can be mysterious, can be thin and huge, can be short and long, ascend to the sky at the spring equinox, and dive into the abyss at the autumn equinox." That is to say, the dragon is the length of a hundred insects, the power to swallow clouds and spit fog, the small energy to shrink into the shape, the rise to soar for nine days, the hidden energy lurking in the abyss, the divine power is incomparable, it is a symbol of exorcising insects and prosperity and auspiciousness.
There is a folk saying: On the second of February, the dragon looks up. This saying has been recorded since the Yuan Dynasty. The dragon does not look up, and it does not rain. On the second day of the first month of February in the lunar calendar, the dragon that had been dormant for a winter looked up on this day and began to call the wind and rain. February 2 is generally before and after the sting, and the sting is not far from nine nine three, nine nine plus one nine, and the cattle are everywhere.
As soon as the sting passed, accompanied by the rumbling spring thunder, the temperature rose, the earth recovered, the insect stings began to sprout, and the poisonous insects that were harmful to human and animal crops also woke up from hibernation, and the disease plague was prone to occur. In ancient times, there were no pesticides to kill insects, and it was impossible to prevent them by relying on primitive capture methods, so people hoped to use the gods to kill insects. Shen Bang of the Ming Dynasty said in the "Miscellaneous Records of the Wanju Department": "The people of the capital call february 2 as 'the dragon raises its head', and the villagers snaking ash from outside the door into the kitchen of the house, swirling around the water tank, calling it 'leading the dragon back'". It is hoped that with the help of the power of the dragon, the insect pests will be eliminated, and the adults and children will not be infected with the plague, and that they will be healthy and safe; that the six animals, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and chickens will flourish, and that the six animals will also refer to all the livestock and poultry raised; and that wheat, millet (yellow sticky rice), grain (millet), rice (rice), beans, etc. will refer to all grain crops.
I remember that when I was a child, at the end of each month, my mother would clean up the ash in the stove or the grass and wood ash after spreading pancakes in the cauldron and put it in the dung basket in the shed, saying that it was saved for the second day of February when the dragon was killed. On the first night of February, my father cleaned a clean place in the patio, dragged out the dung basket containing grass and wood ash, took a shovel and a sieve of chaff and used an iron shovel to remove the ash into the sieve, generally two to three shovels, sifted a sieve, sifted out the soil and the unburned grass stick, and finally sifted out a pile of fine grass and wood ash, and then divided it into dustpans, dung half buckets or baskets, and designed with his mother which was sprinkled in the well, which was sprinkled around the courtyard in front of the house, and it was better to have surplus, not to lack.
On the morning of the second day of the first month of February, just after dawn, my parents got up, and my father carried a half bucket of grass and wood ashes full of dung, grabbed a handful with his hand and sprinkled it, from the gate along the roadside, in a line all the way to the well, shaped like a long dragon. The mother took the dustpan containing grass and wood ash at the lower waist of her left armpit, and with her right hand, she used a small wooden stick to surround the wall roots around the house and spread it out, saying as she sprinkled: "The grass and wood ash is scattered on the wall roots, and the scorpions and scorpions do not turn over; the grass and tree ashes are scattered on the side of the wall, and the worms and worms do not move." This is the dragon repellent insect. Because the well is a green dragon, on the second of February, the dragon looks up, leads the dragon to the house, and then surrounds the house like a coiled dragon lying down, the dragon can destroy all pests, ensure the safety of people and animals, and the grain is abundant. At that time, there were four wells in our village: Ximen, Nanya, Dongtou and Houzhuang, and each family chose to use a well according to the distance of the place of residence. We are Houzhuang, of course using Houzhuangjing. Because the custom of killing insects must be completed before the sun comes out, so the time period of dragon killing insects is more concentrated, sometimes an alley comes out of several people at the same time, sometimes at the same time at the well there are more than ten people from different directions at the entrance to meet, the four sides of the well are gray, and then radiate around, a gray dragon stretches out to each street alley, the roadside you sprinkle again and again, become a thick dragon.
After 1978, every household in their own yard to press the well, after 1994 each family deepened the pressure well with a submersible pump pump, after 2015 pressed the tap water, and with the continuous improvement of the pot stove, first the large pot stove was replaced by an aluminum pot stove, and now it is replaced by a gas stove or electric boiler, in addition to the professional household charcoal fire stall pancakes, few people have supported the tweezers to burn wood grass stall pancakes, grass and wood ash has become a rarity, and the custom of attracting dragons and killing insects in the village has gradually faded.
Now my children are working in the field, and I live with the children in the field, and the old house has been locked for several years. But the custom of attracting dragons to kill insects has lasted for a long time in my heart, every February 2, the day when the dragon looks up, it evokes my good memories of my hometown and my infinite thoughts about my relatives, and the figure of my parents sifting ashes and scattering ashes appears in front of my eyes from time to time, eager to fly home at once, grab the ash of the stove, start from the tap, along the front of the house, inherit the mother's ashing customs, draw a green dragon, may the green dragon look up and soar, and bless the world.
About the Author
Yang Daoming, a native of Liujiaying Village, Jiangyu Town, Linqu County, a senior middle school teacher, and a director of the Linqu County Xiangxian Folk Culture Research Association, loves local literature and folklore research; actively participates in rural cultural construction, sponsors the Liujiaying Village History and Culture Exhibition Hall, and the editor-in-chief of "Liujiaying Village Chronicle" and personal essay collections "Wenshui Yingli" and "Yasheng Zhiqi" are collected by the county archives and libraries.
-----------------------------------
"Rural Linqu" collection
The story of Linqu people at home and abroad and all over Linqu
The subject matter of the manuscript is not limited, photos and videos are available,
Cameras, mobile phones, drones, camcorders agnostic.
===============================
Further reading, encounter Linqu nostalgia and its development and changes:
【Heaven and South, North and North, Shuren, Homeland, Nostalgia】
【Deadline, News, Breaking News】
【Blockbuster】: Linqu County's First Respect for the Elderly Art Festival and The Signing Ceremony of the Garden River Village Partner
【Linqu Local Culture, Folklore, Folk Customs】
【Brilliant Linqu Ren· Piaoyi Bunko ・ Linqu Hall of Fame】