The second day of February in the lunar calendar is not only the "Dragon Raising Heads Festival", but also the "Sheri Festival", the birthday of the land god. Due to the overlap of festivals, in some areas of the south, "February 2nd" has both the custom of the dragon raising its head and the custom of sacrificial shrines. The following brings you a brief introduction to the origin of the second dragon in February, I hope it will be helpful to everyone's work and study.
A brief introduction to the origin of the second dragon raising its head in February
The reason why the second day of the second lunar month is called the Dragon Raising Festival is actually related to ancient celestial phenomena, ancient astronomers in China divided the sky into 28 days according to the trajectory of the sun and moon and the five stars, so as to represent the movement and position of the sun and moon and the five stars. The 28 heavenly houses can be divided into 4 major regions, the eastern Canglong includes the seven houses of Jiao, Kang, Di, Fang, Xin, Wei and Kei, the western white tiger includes Kui, Lou, stomach, Pleiades, Bi, Mi and Shen Qisu, the southern Vermilion Bird includes the seven houses of well, ghost, willow, star, Zhang, Wing and Zhen, and the northern Xuanwu includes the seven houses of fighting, bull, female, void, danger, room and wall, among which the "Jiaosu" is the dragon's horn. On the second day of the second month of February, the dragon horn star rises on the eastern horizon, so it is called the dragon raising its head. Folklore also says that on this day the dragon god will wake up from sleep, so people will burn incense and pray at that time, praying for good weather and abundant crops in the coming year, this day is also called "dragon head festival".
February 2 dragon raised its head 10 taboos
1. It is taboo to eat porridge and drink pimple soup, so as not to paste the longan and hail will fall in the sky.
2. Avoid knife cutting, for fear of cutting the faucet;
3. Women who choose women to send off guests and marry women should avoid pregnant women. "Turn back" and widows.
4. From the Spring Festival to February 2, the pot shall not be empty.
5. The store should not be said to be "closed", and the door is closed at night to be called "by the door".
6. Fishermen or boat owners should not say "turn over", call "slide over".
7. Don't say "jealous", it's called "use taboo".
8. Stop all housework.
Folks believe that on the second day of February, women cannot do needlework, because Canglong has to look up at the world on this day, and the use of needles will "stab the dragon's eyes"; I also have to stop the laundry, I'm afraid that "it will hurt the dragon skin" and so on.
9. Taboo "grinding noodles".
As the saying goes, "grinding for the tiger, grinding for the dragon", there are stone mills, this day to support the mill on the fan, convenient for the "dragon to raise his head**" for the dragon or snake people this day is to pay special attention, in the first night of February at home with a stone mill to lift up the stone mill, said not to affect the "dragon head up", it is said that only in this way, in order to "drizzle all over the ground, a year of food and clothing do not worry".
10. Introducing dragon money - a unique custom in Shanxi.
The southern Jinnan region believes that this day is the day of the green dragon activity, and it is forbidden to go to the river and the well to carry water, so as not to bring back the dragon eggs. When walking and working by the river and the well, pay attention to quietness and try not to make a sound, so as not to alarm the green dragon and ruin the good year of the wind and rain.
February 2 dragon raised its head and what to eat
1. [Leek pork dumplings].
Some of the dumplings resemble ingots, some resemble ears, and the dragon raises its head to eat dumplings on this day and calls it "eating dragon ears". "Comfortable is not as good as upside down, delicious is not as good as dumplings", on the day of "dragon raises its head", pay attention to eating "meat and vegetable dumplings", that is, there is meat and vegetables in the filling, take the homonym of "meat and vegetables" "have wealth", and send a message to the meaning of the New Year's wealth.
Ingredients: 250 grams of all-purpose flour, 130 grams of water, leeks, pork filling.
Seasoning: salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger, white pepper, vegetable oil, starch.
Production process: 1. Appropriate amount of all-purpose flour, a little salt and water to form a smooth dough, cover with plastic wrap and noodles.
2. Add a little white pepper, minced ginger, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 1 tablespoon cooking wine, a little water and a little starch to marinate well.
4. The leeks must be cleaned and dried to control the moisture, and then chop them for later use.
5. Roll the dough into long strips, cut it into small pieces of uniform size, and roll it into dumpling wrappers.
6. Before making dumplings, put the leeks in a pot, add some vegetable oil and stir well, first lock the moisture of the leeks with oil, and finally add pork filling and salt and stir evenly to start making dumplings.
7. Take a dumpling wrapper, put in the leek filling, and wrap it into dumplings according to your habits.
8. When all the dumplings are wrapped, add water to the pot and boil, and then add the dumplings to cook.
2. [Spring Cake].
On the day of the beginning of spring, we pay attention to eating spring cakes, and after the second day of February, we also pay attention to eating spring cakes, eating spring cakes in the beginning of spring is called "biting spring", and eating spring cakes on the second day of February is called biting "dragon scales", which is named because of the round and thin shape of spring cakes like scales. The custom of eating spring cakes on the second day of February originated in the Qing Dynasty, and the cakes were filled with meat such as sauce elbow, pig's head meat, camphor tea duck, and vegetables such as leeks, radish, and bean sprouts.
Ingredients: all-purpose flour, potatoes, carrots, eggs, cucumbers, tenderloin.
Seasoning: light soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, bean paste, white pepper, cooking wine, green onion and ginger.
Production process: 1. Put the flour into a basin, add about 80 degrees of hot water, stir it into a flocculent shape with chopsticks, knead it into a smooth dough when it is not hot, and cover it with plastic wrap.
2. Roll the dough into long strips, then divide it into uniform small agents, take a small agent and flatten it by hand, roll it out with a rolling pin, and form a relatively thick cake.
3. Brush each cake with a thin layer of vegetable oil, and stack 3 or 4 cakes on top of each other.
4. Roll it out again and use even force to make the cake thicker and more uniform.
5. Heat the pan and brush with a little vegetable oil, put in the rolled cake over low heat and cook, tear the baked spring cake while it is hot, and roll it with your favorite dish.
3. [Cold Pork Ears].
Eating pig's head meat is called "picking the dragon's head, and eating pig's head meat on the second day of February is also said." Since ancient times, the worship of the gods always used pigs, cattle and sheep three animals, which were later simplified to the heads of three animals, and the pig's head was one of them.
Raw materials: braised pig ears, green onions.
Seasoning: salt, sugar, chicken essence, chili oil, Sichuan pepper oil, sesame oil, light soy sauce, aged vinegar.
Production process: 1. Cook a pig ear, cut off the fatty part, and cut the remaining part into thin strips.
2. After cleaning the green onions, cut them in half and then cut them into thin strips.
3. Put the shredded green onions and pork ears into a large bowl, add salt, sugar, chicken essence, light soy sauce, aged vinegar, chili oil, Sichuan pepper oil and sesame oil.
4. Stir well.
Fourth, [fried sugar cake].
In some areas such as Beijing and Tianjin, people have the custom of eating fried cakes on the day of the Spring Dragon Festival, which is called "eating gentian". The deep-fried cake is golden in color, and it is very vivid to be called gentian. The practice is to grind the millet into yellow rice, and then grind the yellow rice into noodles, that is, into yellow rice noodles, the yellow rice cake made of yellow rice noodles has the four characteristics of "yellow, soft, tendon, fragrant", there are two ways to eat, one is "vegetarian cake", the other is "fried cake".
Ingredients: 160 grams of all-purpose flour, 300 grams of water, 10 grams of sugar, filling: sugar + flour + black sesame seeds.
Production steps: 1. Put the water in a small pot, add 10 grams of sugar, bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the sugar melts.
2. Put the flour in a large bowl, stir with chopsticks while pouring boiling water, form a sticky ball, and set aside to dry for a while.
3. After drying until it is not hot, it will be mixed into a soft dough, which is relatively soft and sticky, and you can smear some oil on your hands, which is easier to operate.
4. Add some sugar, a little flour and black sesame seeds to a small bowl and stir well as a filling.
5. The dough was kneaded into long strips and divided into small evenly divided into small pieces, and I divided a total of 12 parts.
6. Take a small agent and flatten it by hand, put the filling, wrap it, tighten the mouth to avoid exposing the filling when frying.
7. When all the sugar cakes are wrapped, add oil to the pot and burn it to 6 hot, put the sugar cakes one by one for frying, and when the sugar cakes float, turn them over several times in time to make them evenly colored, and the fried sugar cakes become golden brown and control the oil.
5. [Yangchun noodles].
Northerners like to eat a bowl of "dragon beard noodles" on this day to ask for a "good fortune". The dragon beard noodles evolved from the Shandong rolling noodles, because the stretched noodles are as thin as hair, and the boiling water is like a silver dragon entering the sea, so it is named. "Dragon beard noodles" has a beautiful meaning of smooth and smooth.
Ingredients: 1 small handful of fine noodles.
Seasoning: a pinch of shallots, 1 tablespoon of lard, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt.
Preparation: 1. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of lard to a large bowl of noodles.
2. Add an appropriate amount of water to the boiling pot, scoop some out into a large bowl after boiling, the lard will melt due to the addition of boiling water, and the fragrance will spread.
3. Then put the noodles into the pot and cook, the heat is very critical, the noodles should be soft but not rotten, tough but not hard.
4. Put the boiled noodles into a large bowl and sprinkle with some chopped green onions.