The Dragon Raises its Head on February 2
Folklore has it that on the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, the Dragon King, who is in charge of clouds and rain in the sky, raised his head on the day; from then on, the rain would gradually increase. Therefore, this day is called "Spring Dragon Festival". China's northern part of the widely spread "February 2, the dragon raised its head; big warehouse full, small warehouse flow." The folk proverb.
Whenever the Spring Dragon Festival comes, most areas in the north of China in the morning of this day, every family with a lantern to the well or the river to pick water, back to the home will be lighted, burn incense, offerings. In the old days, people called this ceremony "lead field dragon". On this day, families will also eat noodles, fried cakes, popcorn, than as "picking the dragon", "eat gentian", "golden beans blossom, the Dragon King ascends to the sky, Xingyunbuyu, grains," in order to show that the auspicious celebration.
The source of the Spring Dragon Festival, in China's northern folklore is circulating such a mythological story. Said, Wu Zetian became emperor, annoyed the Jade Emperor, Oracle four sea dragon king, three years shall not to the earth rain. Soon, the Dragon King, who was in charge of the Heavenly River, listened to the cries of the people's families and watched the tragic scene of the starving people, and worried that the way of life on earth would be cut off, he disobeyed the Jade Emperor's will and sent rain to the earth once. The Jade Emperor was informed, the dragon king knocked down to the mortal world, pressed under a big mountain to suffer, the mountain monument: dragon king rainfall violation of the rules of heaven, when subjected to the earth thousands of crimes;
To get back up to the heavenly palace, unless the golden bean blossom time.
People were looking for the blossoming beans in order to save the Dragon King. To the second February of the next year, people are turning corn seeds, think of this corn is like a golden bean, fried a fried flowers, is not a golden bean blossom? On the family popcorn flowers, and set up in the yard burning incense, for the blossom of the "golden beans". Dragon King looked up, know that the people to save it, then shouted to the Jade Emperor: "Golden beans bloom, quickly let me out! The Jade Emperor looked at the earth in the courtyard of the golden bean flowers open, had to pass the Oracle, edict the Dragon King to return to Heaven, continue to give the earth to the clouds and rain. From then on, the folk formed a habit, every February 2 this day, people will pop corn flower to eat.
In fact, in the second month of the lunar calendar, after the "rain" festival comes, the end of the winter phenomenon of little rain, rainfall will gradually increase up, which is originally the characteristics of the monsoon climate in North China.
Ching Ming Festival
Ching Ming is one of the 24 solar terms in China. Since the 24 solar terms reflect the changes in temperature, rainfall and weather conditions throughout the year in a more objective way, the ancient working people used it to organize their agricultural activities. Huainanzi (淮南子). Tianwenxun" said, "Fifteen days after the vernal equinox, the bucket points to B, then the wind of Qingming arrives." According to the "time of the year and a hundred questions": "Everything grows at this time, are clean and clear. Therefore, it is called Qingming." Qingming, the temperature rises, the rainfall increases, it is a good time for spring plowing and planting. Therefore, there are "before and after the Qingming, point melon planting beans", "planting trees, no more than the Qingming" proverbs. It can be seen that this festival and agricultural production has a close relationship.
The Qingming Festival is a traditional festival in China, and is also the most important festival of sacrifice, is the day of ancestor worship and grave sweeping. Tomb-sweeping is commonly known as visiting the graves, an activity to honor the dead. Most Han Chinese and some ethnic minorities sweep their tombs on Qingming Day.
According to the old custom, when sweeping tombs, people should bring wine, food, fruits, paper money and other items to the graveyard, offer the food in front of their loved ones' graves, then incinerate the paper money, cultivate new soil for the graves, fold a few young green branches and stick them on the graves, and then kowtow and worship, and then eat the wine and food and go home at last. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem entitled "Qingming": "The rain falls one after another during the Qingming Festival, and the pedestrians on the road want to break their souls. Where can I find a tavern? The shepherd boy points to the apricot blossom village." It writes about the special atmosphere of Qingming Festival.
The Qingming Festival, also known as the Treading Green Festival, according to the solar calendar, it is between April 4 and 6 every year, it is the bright and beautiful spring grass and trees spit out the green season, but also it is the people of the spring tour (ancient called trekking) a good time, so the ancients have the Qingming trekking, and to carry out a series of sports activities of the custom.
Till today, the Qingming Festival to pay homage to ancestors, mourning the deceased relatives of the custom is still very prevalent.
Duanwu Festival
On the fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar Calendar, it is the traditional festival of Chinese folklore - the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as "Duan Yang", "Pu Festival", It is also called "Duanyang", "Pu Festival", "Tianzhong Festival", "Dachang Festival", "Mu Lan Festival", "Daughter Festival", "Children's Festival". It is one of the traditional festivals of the Han Chinese. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, Chongwu Festival, May Festival, Bathing Orchid Festival, Daughter's Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Di La, Poet's Festival, Dragon's Day, Ai Festival, Duanwu, Summer Festival and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, the people around the custom of the festival is still the same more than different. To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people.
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional custom of the Chinese people for more than two thousand years. Due to the vast area and many nationalities, some of them, such as Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Buyei, Korean, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, She, Lahu, Shui, Naxi, Daolu, Mulao, Qiang, Gelao, Sibeo, Pumi, Ewenke, Yugu, Orochun and other ethnic minorities, also celebrated the festival, and with the addition of many legends and tales, it not only produces a lot of variations, but also a lot of differences. The festival not only has many different names, but also has different customs in different places. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in the hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat race, than the martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings, and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, has been a new development, breaking through the time, geographical boundaries, and has become an international sporting event.
6. Auntie's Festival on the Sixth Day of the Sixth Month of the Lunar Calendar
"On the Sixth Day of the Sixth Month of the Lunar Calendar, please invite your auntie". In the past, on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, it was the custom in the countryside to invite back married girls, young and old, and give them a good reception before sending them back.
I hope it is useful to you, hope to adopt.O(∩_∩)O~~