The traditional Chinese Longtaitou Festival, or DragonHeadRaising Festival, falls on the second day of the second lunar month every year, and recognizes the start of spring and farming. This year it falls on March 8.
Ancient people believed that after this day, rainfall increases because the rainbringing Dragon King has awakened from his winter sleep. A wellknown phrase goes, "Er yue er, long tai tou, " meaning, "On the second day of the second month, the dragon lifts his head."
The festival celebrates ancient agrarian Chinese culture, and while some of traditional ways to celebrate it are no longer practiced, others continue to exist.
The most famous tradition is getting a haircut.Some believe that going to the barber on this day gets rid of bad luck, while others believe getting a haircut during the first month of the lunar calendar brings bad luck. Another saying warns that cutting your hair in the first month will cause your uncle to die. Although today few pay attention to it, it was once a tradition to line up outside barbershops on the day of Longtaitou.
People eat tofu balls in East China's Fujian province during the festival, and often make tofu and vegetable balls to pray for family and business. Fried beans are the traditional festival food for people in parts of Shandong province. Eating chengyao cakes, which are made with sticky rice, during the festival is a tradition in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, owing to the saying, "If you eat chengyao on Longtaitou, your waist won't hurt all year." Meanwhile other foods, like noodles, dumplings, and spring rolls, are named after dragon body parts to mark the day. Noodles are dragon's beard (long xu), dumplings are dragon's ears (long er), spring rolls dragon's scales (long lin).
