Every holiday celebration, we can see people dancing dragons happily. Dragon dancing is also called dragon dancing, dragon playing, dragon lantern playing, dragon lantern playing and dragon lantern festival. So, why do you want to dance dragons?
The purpose of dragon dance can be summarized as follows: first, praying for rain; second, entertaining the gods and themselves; third, showing strength; fourth, prospering people's hearts.
Among them, praying for rain and blessing is the most basic. According to the folklore around the two lakes, Guiguzi met the old dragon in Jinjiao during the Warring States Period. Guiguzi said: "According to my calculation, it rained recently, 36 o'clock in the city and 48 o'clock outside the city." Jinjiao Laolong deliberately failed to live up to Guiguzi's prediction, so he took advantage of his position to let the city get off at 48 o'clock and get off at 36 o'clock. As a result, many people in this city died in the flood. Later, the Jade Emperor reprimanded the emperor, and Jinjiao Laolong was demoted. In order to atone for his sins, the old dragon bows to the people from house to house every year when the Spring Festival comes, and promises good weather for a year. Therefore, according to this legend, people make colorful dragons out of bamboo silk and satin tulle, and they dance every New Year's Day to express their cheerful mood, which also means that the old dragon is obedient and God will fool people. The legend of Tongliang in Sichuan is similar: the dragon king in the East China Sea suffered from low back pain and became an old man who went ashore for medical treatment. Knowing that the pulse was inhuman, the doctor restored it to its original shape and grabbed a centipede from its waist. After the dragon king recovered from his illness, he thanked the outdoor machine and said that as long as people built a dragon to dance around it like it, they could keep the rain in time and reap a bumper harvest.
Dragon dancing and praying for rain had been popular in the pre-Qin period, and by the Han Dynasty, it had reached a considerable scale and had many exquisite forms. According to Dong Zhongshu's Spring and Autumn Story, in the Han Dynasty, people prayed for rain and danced dragons in spring, dragons or Huanglongs in summer, dragons in autumn and dragons in winter. These dragons are tens of feet long, ranging from five to nine at a time.
Most of the dragon dances in later generations contain the meaning of praying for rain and blessing. Such as the "leading silkworm body lamp" popular in the mountainous areas of western Hunan. The lamp consists of a dragon's head and a silkworm's body and tail. Exquisite production, compact shape, flexible head and tail, flexible turning. Bamboo rings are connected into silkworm bodies, with ropes inside, white cloth outside and red and green colored rings outside. Three outstanding folk artists hold their heads, waists and tails respectively. The "faucet silkworm body lights" usually travel in pairs. Before turning off the lights, each pair of lights should go down to the river to "absorb water" and then wish good luck along the door. Why "absorb water"? Very easy to understand. Only when the dragon absorbs enough water can it ensure enough rain.
The popular dance grass dragon jujube in some places in the south is made of wicker, ivy and straw. When dancing the dragon at night, the dragon is fragrant, so it is also called "Xianglong" and "Xianglonglong". At the end of the dragon dance, the grass dragon will be respectfully sent to rivers and streams with loud gongs and firecrackers. Its original intention is to let the dragon return to the Dragon Palace, so as to wish one side a good weather.