Sending Frogs on the 14th of the First Month, an ancient and mysterious traditional folk program in northern Sichuan, is popular in Minjiang area (Xichong dialect) in the southwest mandarin of Nanchong City, Sichuan Province and its nearby areas (such as Jialing, Shunqing, Xichong and the south). After evolution, it has become a unique local folk culture and valuable intangible cultural heritage in Nanchong.
Festivals are divided into four categories, one is to make a frog cage, the other is to shake tender bamboo to pray for high, and the third is to send frogs, insert the frog cage into distant water, pray for driving away the plague of frogs, pray for children not to cough, and pray for good health. The fourth is to eat New Year's Eve, which marks the last day of the New Year, and the second day (the fifteenth day of the first month) is the first working day of the New Year.
The origin of festivals
Tracing back to the origin of the "Frog Festival", it is said that in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, many villagers suddenly contracted the plague and died of hemoptysis before the Spring Festival in Sanhui Town and other places. At this time, a Taoist priest happened to travel here. After his guidance, people realized that it was the "toad" (similar to toad) plague god of Xixi who came out to make trouble.
In order to drive away the plague, people cut bamboo into "frog" lights, lit candles and inserted them into Xixi River according to the instructions of Taoist priests. The frog plague really escaped. Since then, the village has been far away from diseases and disasters, and the grain harvest has been bumper every year. The main activity of Frog Festival is to send frog lanterns and children shake tender bamboo. In the early morning of the fourteenth day of the first month, the villagers began to be busy making "frog lanterns".
Refer to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Frog Festival