Spring Dragon Festival in China (2)

The dragon realized that people were trying to save him, so he shouted to the sky, "Free me, for the golden beans have bloomed!" The Jade Emperor agreed, the dragon rose from the mountain and returned to the heavenly palace.

The most famous tradition on this day is to have a haircut. There are many legends about the origin of the custom.

Some people believed that going to the barber on the second day of the second month would get rid of bad luck, while others believed it was very bad luck to get a haircut during the first month of the lunar calendar. This applied to both boys and girls.

There's an old saying, "Cut your hair in the first month and your uncle will die." Nowadays most people pay no attention to the tradition but seniors say in the old days patrons would line up outside barber shops on the Chunlong Festival.

Food with dragon names

"On the contrary, nowadays for several weeks after Spring Festival, barbers could take a long holiday," says 80-year-old Yu Jiaying.

Now his family only takes small boys to the barber that day, in hopes that a haircut will bring good luck in the new year. There's no special food, except popcorn. But the basic noodles, dumplings, spring rolls and popcorn are all given dragon names. Noodles are called dragon's beard (long xu 龙须); dumpling are dragon's ears (long er 龙耳); spring rolls are dragon's scales (long lin 龙鳞); popcorn is called dragon seeds (long zi 龙子).

Meanwhile in Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, people usually eat steamed rice with mustard leaves.

Legend has it that during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Emperor Qianlong traveled incognito to Wenzhou. On the second day of the second month, he was hungry and stopped at the home of an impoverished intellectual. The man and his wife didn't have enough rice for three people, so they cooked mustard leaves from their garden and steamed them together with rice.

The emperor, who had been used to delicacies of every kind, found the rice delicious and praised it.

Wenzhou people made it a custom to eat rice with mustard leaves on the Spring Dragon Festival.

Little-known Fests

China's major festivals are generally well known, but there are thousands of interesting "days" and calendar customs that originated in ancient times. Some are still practiced, and in this occasional column, we look at some of the more colorful and their legends.

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