On July 11, 1987, the birth of a baby in Yugoslavia was symbolically recognized by the United Nations as the five billionth person on earth, and it was declared that the earth's population had surpassed the five billion mark. The United Nations Population Fund (UNEPA) initiated this day as "World Population Day". The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) decided to designate July 11 of each year, beginning in 1988, as World Population Day. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) decided to designate World Population Day on July 11 every year since 1988, in order to raise awareness of the world's population problems.
According to the recommendation of the 36th session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in order to draw the attention of the governments and people of the world to population issues, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) asked governments and civil society organizations to observe World Population Day during this period. Since then, every year on July 11th, countries around the world have carried out awareness-raising activities.
A baby weighing 3,700 grams was born on Feb. 15, 1995, at midnight at Beijing Maternity Hospital, announcing the arrival of China's 1.2 billionth citizen. Less than 2,000 days after the "1.1 billion people day" on April 11, 1989, another 100 million new passengers were added to the huge population train. In order to further arouse the attention of the whole nation to the population issue.
October 12, 1999, the world's population reached 6 billion people the United Nations to determine today as the world's "6 billion people day. ", "Tianzhong Festival", "Dachang Festival", "Mu Lan Festival", "Daughter Festival ". It is one of the traditional festivals of the Han Chinese nation. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, Chongwu Festival, May Festival, Bathing Orchid Festival, Daughter's Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Earth Waxing, Poet's Festival, Dragon's Day, Ai Festival, Duanwu, Summer Festival and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, the people around the custom of the festival is still the same more than different. To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people.
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional custom of the Chinese people for more than two thousand years. Due to the vast area and many nationalities, some of them, such as Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Buyei, Korean, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, She, Lahu, Shui, Naxi, Daolu, Mulao, Qiang, Gelao, Sibeo, Pumi, Ewenke, Yugu, Orochun and other ethnic minorities, also celebrated the festival, and with the addition of many legends and tales, it not only produces a lot of variations, but also a lot of differences. The festival not only has many different names, but also has different customs in different places. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in the hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat race, than the martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings, and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, have been newly developed, breaking through time and geographical boundaries and becoming international sporting events.
On the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are many ways of saying, such as: commemorate Qu Yuan said; commemorate Wu Zixu said; commemorate Cao E said; from the three generations of the summer solstice festival said; the evil month of the evil day to drive to avoid said, Wu Yue national totem sacrifices said and so on. Each of the above said, each of its origin. According to scholars Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Dragon Boat Festival of the history of education" listed more than a hundred ancient records and expert archaeological evidence, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the ancient Chinese southern Wu Yue national totem festival, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over the centuries, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely and y rooted in people's hearts, so people "cherish and mourn them, and the world discusses their words in order to pass them on to each other", therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's words has the widest and deepest impact, and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people to the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race and eat zongzi, etc., are associated with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.
The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and has a history of more than 2,000 years. There are many origins and legends of the Dragon Boat Festival, and the following four are introduced here:
Originally commemorating Qu Yuan
According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu (楚怀王), during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated for the promotion of the virtuous and the capable, the enrichment of the country and the strengthening of the army, and strongly advocated for the alliance of Qi against Qin, which was strongly opposed by the aristocrat Zilan and others, Qu Yuan was gluttonously dismissed from his post, driven out of the capital city, and was exiled to the Yuan and Xiang basins. During his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which are unique and far-reaching (thus, the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Poets' Festival). In 278 B.C., the Qin army attacked the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland being invaded, and his heart was cut to pieces, but he could not bear to give up his motherland, and on the 5th of May, after writing his final work "Huai Sha", he threw himself into Miluo River and died, composing a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.
Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were in mourning and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. Fishermen rowed up their boats and salvaged his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out for Qu Yuan prepared rice balls, eggs and other food, "flop, flop" thrown into the river, said that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat enough, will not go to bite the body of Dr. Qu. People see have followed suit. An old physician to bring a altar of yellow wine poured into the river, said to be drug stunned dragon water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, for fear of rice balls for the dragon to eat, people came up with a neem leaf wrapped in rice, wrapped in colorful silk, developed into a brown.
After that, on the fifth day of the fifth month of every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine custom; in order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
Originally in honor of Wu Zixu
The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated around Jiangsu and Zhejiang, commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, had his father and brother killed by the king of Chu. Later, Wu Zixu abandoned his darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu conquer Chu, and entered Ying City, the capital of Chu, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu had already died, and Zixu dug up his grave and whipped his body 300 times to avenge the killing of his father and brother. After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won a hundred battles, and the Yue kingdom was greatly defeated, and King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, which Fu Chai agreed to. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely destroyed, but Fu-chai refused to listen to him, and Wu's Dazai, who had been bribed by the state of Yue, framed Zixu with slanderous rumors, and Fu-chai believed him and gave Zixu a sword, which he used to kill himself. Zixu was a loyal and good man, and he looked upon death as a homecoming. Before his death, he said to his neighbors, "When I die, I will dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to see the Vietnamese army enter the city to destroy Wu", and then he cut his own throat, and Fu Cai was furious, and he ordered to take the body of Zixu and put it into a leather bag to throw it into a big river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so it was said that the Dragon Boat Festival was also the day to commemorate Wu Zixu.
The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Cao E, a filial daughter who saved her father's life and threw herself into the river during the Eastern Han Dynasty (23 - 220 A.D.). Cao E was a Shangyu people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his father drowned in the river, a few days to see the body, the filial daughter of Cao E was only fourteen years old, day and night along the river crying. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. The story was passed down as a myth, and the story was passed down to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument for it, and had his disciple Handan Chun write a eulogy in praise of it.
The tomb of Cao E, a filial daughter, is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the monument to Cao E is said to have been written by Wang Yi of the Jin Dynasty. To commemorate Cao E's filial piety, a Cao E Temple was built at the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, the village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E died for her father was named Cao E River.
Originally commemorating the revolutionary poetess Qiu Jin
Qiu Jin was martyred on the 5th of May, and the descendants, in order to honor her poetry and mourn her loyal and courageous deeds, combined with the Poet's Day to commemorate the Poet's Day, which also commemorates the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, and is designated as the Dragon Boat Festival. Qiu Jin word Ruiqing Jingxiong, the number of jianhu female warrior, small word yugu, shaoxing, zhejiang people, young, good at poetry, lyrics, song, fugue, and like to ride a horse fencing, there are flowers, Mulan, qin liangyu in the world of the name. 28 years old to participate in the revolution, the influence of the great, the premeditated uprising, the meeting for the qing soldiers arrested, not give in to the may 5, thirty-three years of guangxu xuan hengkou in shaoxing, valiantly.
Originally from the ancient Vietnamese national totem sacrifice
Many recent excavated artifacts and archaeological research confirms that: the vast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric printed pottery as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The remains of the clan, according to experts deduced that it is a tribe that worships the totem of the dragon ---- historically known as the Baiyue tribe. The decorations on the excavated pottery and historical legends show that they had the custom of breaking their hair and tattooing, lived in the water towns, and compared themselves to the descendants of the dragon. Their production tools, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. As a living thing in the altar pots and jars, cooking food printed pots are unique to them, is one of the symbols of their community. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was the festival they created for ancestor worship. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have been integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, so the Dragon Boat Festival has become a festival for the whole Chinese nation.