Anren market day

Anren market day is a unique seasonal folk festival in the country, which has lasted for thousands of years. According to legend, Yandi (Yan Emperor), along with 8 entourages, came to the territory of Anren to taste herbs and teach farming, and they sacrificed themselves because they accidentally ate gelsemium elegan ( or broken intestine grass).

In order to commemorate Yandi, the ancestors of Anren County built a temple on Xiangcaoping, at the current Ankang Road of the county, for people to worship.

At the beginning, there were vendors selling incense candles and paper money, and then those trading herbs, rattan ropes, hoe handles, bucket pipes, etc.

Gradually, the scale continued to expand, evolving into a local grand folk festival. Around the spring equinox every year, three days before and after it, people will rush to Anren County for the sales of Chinese herbal medicines, agricultural and sideline specialties and others, as well as a variety of local cultural and artistic activities. The scene is spectacular.

Every year at the spring equinox, hundreds of thousands of people rush to Anren County from more than 100 counties of over 10 provinces including Xinjiang, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, and even Southeast Asian countries.

During the festival, the most common thing to see is Chinese herbal medicine. Thousands of dan of Chinese herbal medicines are distributed on the market.

Anren has always been a trading center for Chinese herbal medicine. The streets are filled with Chinese herbs from all over the country and even Southeast Asia. Besides, there is a full variety of herbs, involving hundreds of families of plants and nearly 1,000 species.

What’s more, Anren herbs are very magic, which can cure some difficult diseases. Many folk doctors will also gather here, exchanging medical skills and purchasing herbs. There are also some quacks with unique skills, who may cure some incurable diseases and leave a lot of anecdotes.

On the surface, this folk custom is to worship ancient celebrities and ancestors, but in fact it is to express gratitude to Yandi for his great achievements in educating people about farming and pioneering medicine, advocate his spirit of hard work, self-improvement, pioneering and dedication.

Shennong culture belongs to not only people in Anren County, but also the whole nation and the world, which needs to be passed on and carried forward by our descendants from generation to generation.