Longtaitou, when the dragon raises its head

Longtaitou 龙抬头 — “the dragon raises its head” — falls on the second day of the second lunar month. The name is the whole programme: the dragon is the rain, and this is the day it is asked to wake. Hair was not cut between New Year and this date; the first haircut of the year is taken now, so as not to “cut the luck” of the new cycle. Dumplings, or noodles “dragon’s whiskers”, are eaten. In the countryside the day is still tied to the first ploughing.

It is a lesser festival in the cities, and the French calendar long left it without a guide page. The facts above are those of the guide fiche written for that gap: a spring marker, not a public holiday, not a night of lanterns. It sits on the hub because the calendar dates it, not because it fills the streets.