Dragon Head Raising (the second day of the second lunar month), also known as Spring Farming Festival, Farming Festival, Qinglong Festival and Spring Dragon Festival, is a traditional folk festival in China. "Dragon" refers to the astrology of the oriental black dragon in seven of the twenty-eight lodges. At the beginning of mid-spring every year, the "Dragon Horn Star" rises from the eastern horizon, so it is called "Dragon Head Up".
The black dragon's seven nights correspond to rainfall. The ancients believed that dragons were in charge of rainfall, which determined agricultural harvest, and agricultural harvest determined people's living standards. Dragon has become the most important "totem" in agricultural society.
In farming culture, "the dragon looks up" means that the sun is shining, the rain is increasing and everything is full of vitality. Since ancient times, people have also regarded the Dragon Rise Day as a day to pray for good weather, ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters, and accept good luck.
Historical evolution:
Dragon is a magical creature. The ancients thought it lived in the sea. It is the master of weathering rain, and it originated from the worship of natural phenomena, which is related to the understanding of the movement of stars in ancient astronomy and farming culture. The purpose of ancient people's observation of celestial phenomena is to determine the time and thus provide services for agricultural production.
The rise of the dragon is a reflection of the seasons in the ancient farming culture of China. Although it has a long history, "Dragon Rise" is widely circulated as a national festival and appears in the literature after the Yuan Dynasty. The Han Dynasty is an important period of cultural exchange and integration between the north and the south of China, and the image of the dragon is recorded in the documents of the Han Dynasty.
Dong Zhongshu's Spring and Autumn Stories in the Western Han Dynasty mentioned the activity of dancing dragons to ask for rain, and directly held the activity of asking for rain with the help of the image of dragons. The stone reliefs in the Han Dynasty are also engraved with the dance scene of "playing with dragons", which is regarded as the origin of dragon lanterns in later generations.