How to Celebrate the Blue Dragon Festival (2024)
By: Wes Radez
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
How to Celebrate the Blue Dragon Festival
The Blue Dragon Festival, also known as the Zhonghe Festival or Longtaitou Festival, is a holiday closely tied to China's ancient agrarian culture. It's a traditional holiday meant to welcome the earliest tentative signs of spring.
Blue Dragon Festival 2024 is March 11, 2024. It takes place every year between February 21 and March 21 on the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month.
Here's a simple guide to a holiday celebrated across the rural countryside to signal nature's awakening from its winter slumber.
The Basics
Longtaitou literally translates to "dragon raising its head," a reference to the animal believed to preside over all creatures and, importantly, control the rains. Farmers celebrate the Blue Dragon Festival to ensure favorable rainfall and plowing conditions for a strong harvest season.
The holiday takes place around the time of Jingzhe, the 3rd solar term of the Chinese calendar. This time of year, known as the "waking of insects," awakens the land and its hibernating animals at the first warming signs of spring.
Blue Dragon Festival Traditions
You are unlikely to see any public celebration of the Blue Dragon Festival outside of China, or even in China's major cities. Nevertheless, there are several customs from the countryside that you can observe for this holiday.
Clean the House
The Blue Dragon Festival takes place at the start of the 2nd lunar month, making it safe to clean without sweeping away Chinese New Year's luck and good fortune.
Get a Haircut
Similar to housecleaning, it's considered bad luck to cut your hair during the 1st lunar month. Cutting your hair on the Blue Dragon Festival aligns yourself with the dragon's dignity and power.
Eat Dragon Foods
Dumplings are called the "dragon's ears," pancakes are the "dragon's scales" and noodles are the "dragon's beard," to express hopes for rain and a good harvest.
When is the Blue Dragon Festival?
The Blue Dragon Festival takes place every year between February 21 and March 21 on the 2nd day of the 2nd lunar month. There is no time off granted for the Blue Dragon Festival.
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Today is Zhonghe Festival, also known as Blue Dragon Festival.
My wife, having grown up on a farm in rural Chongqing, celebrates Zhonghe Festival, and so today we had a breakfast of wonderful tasty plate-sized pancakes made from flour and eggs and laced with chopped green vegetable. For lunch we will enjoy jiaozi (dumplings, as pictured above), and for dinner we will have noodles, but I will make mine into spaghetti using spaghetti sauce and ground parmesan cheese. For me the best thing about Chinese Festivals is the special foods that are prepared and eaten at those times.