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20070327 Tuesday March 27, 2007
Dragon Lifting His Head

On this 2nd day of the 2nd month of Chinese year (March 20th, 2007), the dragon lifts his head (二月二 龙抬头).

During the Tang (唐) dynasty, WU ZeTian (武则天, 624~705) over-took the country and became the 1st ever Empress in China. The Gods were not pleased and decided to punish her with a drought. The God of Water, Dragon, received the order not to rain.

But he couldn't bear to see people suffer and gave the world just a little relief. For this crime, the Gods imprisoned him beneath a mountain until "the golden beans blossom."

People were grateful to Dragon and sought a way to relieve him. One day, they were sun drying corns and eureka, "Aren't these golden beans?" The golden beans blossomed and Dragon is free! Since then, people celebrate this day that "the Dragon lifted his head." Yes, we Chinese also invented popcorn.

You see, Dragon, also a symbol for emperor, is always male.


Here is a more down-to-earth version.

In agricultural society, the farmers pretty much start their annual vacation after the fall harvest. The leisurely hedonism crests at the New Year. The spring festival starts on New Year's day and lasts for 15 days until the full moon. Then, everyone tries to recover and get ready for another year of the farming. On this 2nd day of the 2nd month, the farming starts. In Chinese, it is called Nong Tou (农头).

Since Dragon (龙, Long) is in charge of watering affairs, such as rain, river, ocean, etc. Everyone hopes that this day will also start with a nice rain. In pictures, Dragon sprouts water raising its head (head is "tou" 头 in Chinese).

So, Nong Tou became Long Tai Tou (农头 龙抬头).


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posted by syw Mar 27 2007, 12:00:00 AM CST Permalink Comments [3]

Comments:

原来如此,我还是第一次知道二月二的来历。

Posted by Ryan Qian on March 27, 2007 at 09:24 AM CST #

I tend to believe the second version more. But the first one is more entertaining.

Posted by Kevin Zhou on March 27, 2007 at 03:53 PM CST #

Rain is good fortune.

Posted by Jacob Mathai on March 29, 2007 at 12:30 AM CST #

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