Introduction On the seventh day of July, most places celebrate the traditional Chinese Valentine's Day, but in Nanping, the folk customs are quite different. For example, villagers in Zhang Hu Town live a traditional "snake festival".
Early in the morning, the local villagers invited the python and the snake god Lian Gong out of the "Snake King Temple" for a cruise, in order to have a good weather, a bumper harvest and a safe family. The villagers each took a snake and walked behind them in the middle of the street line. The scene was spectacular and attracted many viewers to stop and enjoy it. Many foreign tourists arrived in Zhang Hu town early in the morning with their families to celebrate this annual event with the villagers.
Fuzhou tourist: I heard about it for the first time, so I came to have a look. I won't be afraid, I will feel the snake winding around me. Zhang Hu Town is a thousand-year-old town in the upper reaches of Minjiang River. The local villagers worship snakes as totems. They worship snakes as gods, don't kill them, avoid eating snake meat, and give way to them when they meet snakes. On the eve of the seventh day of every year, the villagers put the snakes they caught in the Snake King Temple. On the seventh day of every year, they will go on a cruise. After the snake swam, everyone released the small snake into nature and left the big python in Jiufengshan Zoo.
It is understood that Zhang Hu Snake Culture Festival originated from the local Snake King Temple Fair, which is a traditional custom of ancient Fujian-Vietnam culture. In 2005, the folk custom of worshipping snakes in Zhanghu Lake was included in the first batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage list.
The representative of folk culture in northern Fujian-Zhang Hu snake culture. The snake culture in Zhanghu Lake has a long history, which has profoundly influenced the life, beliefs and spiritual culture of local people for thousands of years. Up to now, Zhanghu Lake still retains a relatively primitive and quaint Snake King Temple, a relatively complete snake lantern, snake race and other folk activities and snake museum, which has high research, development and utilization value, especially praised by experts and scholars at home and abroad such as Japan, Taiwan and Beijing.
Zhang Hu Snake Festival. Every year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, villagers in Zhang Hu Town will hold a snake welcoming activity to pray for the snake god to keep peace forever. The Snake Festival is divided into four parts: the origin of snake culture, the symbol of snake king, the ceremony of snake worship and the return of snakes, forming a unique folk system of snake sacrifice in spring and autumn.
Zhang Hu Snake King Temple. Located in the dock on the east side of Zhang Hu Town, the Qing Dynasty building with brick and wood structure is a double-eaved hanging mountain style. The difference between this temple and other temples is that the protruding head at the corner of the eaves is carved into a snake head, which is lifelike. The Snake King Temple is also called "Lian Gong Temple" and "Fuqing Hall".
Locals are not afraid of snakes? Children also play close with snakes? It is auspicious to be entangled in a snake.
When you come to Zhang Hu Town, Yanping District, Nanping, a thousand-year-old town, you seem to have come to Bai Tuo of Ouyang Feng written by Jin Yong. Up to now, there is still a quaint folk cultural activity-offering sacrifices to snakes. Every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the town will hold a grand snake race to meet the gods. Yesterday, our reporter recorded this folk custom that has been included in the provincial intangible cultural heritage list with a lens.
At 4: 30 in the morning, salute sounded in all directions in the southeast and northwest of the town, and the snake race began. At half past six, the inside and outside of the Snake King Temple were crowded with people. The local senior with excellent snake training ability and prestige is called "snake king", and the ceremony is presided over by him. In the past, after the villagers went up the mountain to catch snakes, they kept them in small porcelain pots or wooden barrels in the Snake King Temple until the seventh day of the snake race. After the simple ceremony, the snake king distributed snakes to the villagers. I saw four young men coming forward. One of them carried away a boa constrictor with a length of more than 3 meters and a weight of more than 50 kilograms. The children rushed to grab the snake excitedly. The largest python, dubbed the "snake saint", weighs more than 60 kilograms, making it difficult to control. It has to be put in a cage and pushed by four people.
Chen, a 76-year-old snake king, said that local people respect snakes very much, and people in the town can basically "play" snakes. Children have been close to snakes since childhood. When training snakes, you should pay attention to techniques. When catching a snake, don't use your hands too hard. Hold them gently and prepare a wet towel. Wipe them every few minutes to cool them down. "When you get along well with them, they will listen." The parade has begun. Some people carry idols, some people knock gongs to clear the way, some people carry banners, the children form a weapon array and a waist drum team, and the old people play soldiers and prisoners wearing cangue. The snake race team has a snake in its hand, either wrapped around its shoulder or wrapped around its chest and neck. On the journey, the small snake is easy to deal with, and the big python is very heavy. After walking for a while, two people have to carry it. Where the parade passed by, every household put incense tables and set off firecrackers at the door, and put a basin of clear water at the door, waiting for the snake racer to put the snake into the water to wash it and let it cool for a while. During the street tour, residents and tourists came forward one after another, touching boa constrictors, playing with small snakes, getting in close contact with snakes and taking photos as a souvenir.
After the snake race ceremony, people will take live snakes to the Minjiang River and release them, praying that the snake god will bring people a good year of "peace, good luck and abundant crops". Since pythons are national protected animals, they will no longer be released, but will be fostered in Nanping City and brought back to the ceremony next year.
Zhang Hu Town, located at the southernmost tip of northern Fujian, at the junction of Yanping, Youxi, Gutian and Minqing counties, is the largest market town in the middle reaches of Minjiang River. The Zhang Hu Snake Festival is scheduled on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month every year, which is thought-provoking. Is there any connection between Snake Festival and Valentine's Day? "The Snake Festival has nothing to do with the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl." Wang Shangshu, the stationmaster of Zhang Hu Town Cultural Station, said that Fujian was called "Min" in ancient times, and the expression "Min, Yue Southeast, snake species, from the sound of insects" appeared in Shuo Wen Jie Zi. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, ancestors in all parts of central Fujian believed in the snake god as the ancestor god. In the cultural circle of snake worship in Minjiang River Basin, the complete and primitive custom of snake worship in Zhang Hu Town has been preserved to this day. The Zhang Hu Lakers use snakes as totems. They don't kill snakes, avoid eating snake meat, and avoid them when they meet snakes.