Spring Dragon Festival

The dragon is China’s most famous mythical creature. The most famous story about dragon is Dragon Boat Festival, but now I want to introduce a less-known one, Spring Dragon Festival. Spring Dragon Festival on February 2nd on lunar calendar is a traditional festival in Northern China. The Spring Dragon Festival’s development has three stages: the legends of it, the ancient Chinese celebration, and the customs now.
There was a legend that when the Emperor Wu Zetian became an emperor, the Heaven God ordered the dragon to stop raining for three years, for Wu was a woman. Soon after this, the dragon king, who was in charge of the heaven river, heard the bitter cries from the people. He went against the Heaven God's order and gave a heavy rain. Because of this, the dragon king, was thrown to Earth and pressed under a large mountain. The Heaven God claimed that only when the gold beans were in blossom could the Dragon King return to the heaven palace. Then the folk hurried to look for gold beans everywhere in order to save the dragon king. On the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month the next year, when people were drying the corn seeds in the sun, they thought of the corn seeds as gold beans because when they were roasted, they would pop in blossom like gold beans. The dragon king was then saved. Since then, people celebrate it every year as the Spring Dragon Festival.
In ancient China, people still believed that the dragon could control the rain. It is said that dragon would raise its head and bring rain in spring on that day. To thank the dragon for the rain which brought them harvest they decided to celebrate it every year. People always danced the Dragon Dance, a really traditional dance in China. There were more than 10 or more people; one person controlled the head of dragon, and others followed the leader. At the same time, there would be a deafening sound of gongs and drums. People were all cheering; the spectacle was very busy and spectacular! The family members were happy to be together, laughing and chatting. They wished that they would have a favorable weather and everything would go well in this year.
Now, we still celebrate it with some traditional customs which are all about dragons. On Spring Dragon Festival we eat special noodles called “Dragon Beard Noodles” which are very thin and long like the dragon’s beard, dumplings which look like dragon’s ears, and spring pancakes which look like dragon scale. And parents take their children to the barbershop to cut their hair. We call that “Cut Dragon’s Hair”. They wish their children to be like a dragon in the future. As you know, the dragon is a symbol of power, abilities, and so on. Although people don’t pray for rain in spring as before, they still wish that they will be like a dragon in the future and the dragon will bring them good luck in spring even in the whole year. But something interesting for me after that day is to see so many classmates’ new hairstyles at the same time. Of course, it’s quite expensive to cut hair on that day. It is such meaningful festival to us!
The Spring Dragon Festival has a long history and important meaning: the legend of it and celebration in ancient times and now. I hope that when we celebrate the Spring Dragon Festival we never forget the longstanding history and culture.