The origin and significance of the Ice Rolling Festival

This custom originates from an ancient legend. A long time ago, the daughter of the Songhua River God Unicorn fell in love with a young man who fished here and got married and lived a happy and peaceful life. This matter was discovered by the one-horned dragon. On the first day of the new year, the one-horned dragon opened the river with its horn, captured the dragon girl, and wanted to punish the young man and the villagers with the plague. The dragon girl entrusted her dream to her sweetheart and told the young man to roll on the ice on the night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. If he rolled nine times on the left and nine times on the right, he could avoid the plague. So on the night of the Lantern Festival, the whole village, old and young, went to roll on the ice, and they really escaped the disaster. The villagers were afraid of the unicorn dragon's revenge, so every year on the fifteenth night of the first lunar month, they would roll on the ice, gradually forming a unique folk custom that continues to this day.

More than six hundred years ago, from 1368 to 1398 (the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty), Fulalji was just a small village, home to more than ten families of settled Da herdsmen. Because the riverside embankment is an exposed red clay cliff, and the waterside is full of five-color stones as red as agate, people call this place "Hulan'erige". "Hulan" means red, "Erige" means cliff is the bank, and "Hulan Erige" is translated as "Red Bank". Over the years, it has been passed down that people call it plainly "Huralg", which is also pronounced as "Fularki", also known as "Fularki". After the completion of the China-Eastern Railway in 1903, Fularki became an "important town" and "small commercial port", attracting a large number of foreigners to come here, and the population quickly increased to more than 1,400 people and more than 400 households. Later, it was ravaged and trampled by Tsarist Russia and Japanese imperialism, and the Nen River and Yarlu River were flooded for many years, and the plague became prevalent. In 1925, there was another fire. The country was in danger and the people were in dire straits. In order to pray for their own survival, safety and prosperity, people placed their hopes on the blessing of gods. At that time, local prominent figures gathered together to discuss and raise funds to build a "Guandi Temple" at the old elm tree in Hong'an Park. After the completion of the Guandi Temple, the area around Fulalji became famous far and wide. 5. Thousands of people attend the temple fair from morning to night, and there is a constant flow of traffic. At that time, the residents of Fulalji all lived within a radius of about one kilometer of the current Red Bank Park. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it was the temple fair and the Lantern Festival. Adults and children came here to attend the temple fair and play by the river; Walking on the cliff is called "gaining good luck", and collecting firewood and grass on the other side of the river is called "shining ten thousand wealth"; setting off firecrackers and firecrackers to celebrate the Lantern Festival. And because there is a legend among the northern people that whoever can take a bath in an ice cave or roll on the ice will be free from all diseases in the new year. Except for a few people who bathe in ice caves, most people will be free from all diseases in the new year. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people go to the ice to "roll" on the temple fair. "Rolling ice" means "rolling diseases", praying for the removal of all diseases. Slowly developed until now, the custom of rolling ice on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month has become a major festival activity for the Fularki people.

The construction of Hong'an Park paved the tourist road along the river into red pavement and named it "Hongyun Road" according to the meaning of "Red Bank", which further enriched the folk cultural festival life of ice rolling on the 15th day of the first lunar month. . The Ice Rolling Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month in Fularki has a history of a hundred years. This folk tradition has become the most important and solemn festival for the 300,000 people in Fularki.