The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China and has a history of more than 2,000 years. So how much do you know about the Dragon Boat Festival? Today I will tell you about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival and take a look at the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival.
A brief introduction to the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is one of the largest traditional festivals in my country. The Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Dragon Boat Festival. The meaning of "Duanwu" is the same as that of the "Chinese Lunar New Year". The word "Duanwu" is also called "The Fifth Day of the Lunar New Year"; the word "五" of the Dragon Boat Festival is connected with the "Wu", which can be calculated according to the order of the earthly branches. May is the noon month. And because noon is "Yang Chen", the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duan Yang". On May 5th, the month and day are both five, so it is called Chongwu, also called Chongwu. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many other names, such as: Summer Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Girl's Day, Tianzhong Festival, Dila, Poet's Day, etc.
The many nicknames of the Dragon Boat Festival indirectly illustrate the divergence of the customary origins of the Dragon Boat Festival. This is exactly what happened. Regarding the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are at least four or five theories today, such as: the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan; the theory of Wuyue national totem sacrifice; the theory of the Summer Solstice Festival that started in the third generation; the theory of driving away evil months and evil days, etc. So far, the most widely influential view on the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan. In the field of folk culture, Chinese people associate the dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival with Qu Yuan. It is said that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, local people injured him and died, so they tried their best to rescue him in boats because of the custom of boat racing. It is also said that people often put food into the water to worship Qu Yuan, but most of them were eaten by dragons. Later, they used neem because of Qu Yuan's reminder. Rice is wrapped in leaves and colored silk is wrapped around it to make the later rice dumplings.
The main customs of the Dragon Boat Festival include: eating rice dumplings, inserting mugwort or calamus on the door to drive away evil spirits, tying a thread of longevity, drinking realgar wine or using it to disinfect, racing dragon boats, etc. Zongzi is also called "corner millet" and "tube rice dumpling". The former is named after its angular shape and sticky rice inside, while the latter, as the name suggests, is probably cooked with rice in a bamboo tube. Eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival has been very popular in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. This food is eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival and Summer Solstice festivals every year. Zongzi is also a kind of holiday gift. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, rice dumplings had become extremely famous and were often sold in the market. Nowadays, we still have to eat a few rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival.
There are many varieties of zongzi, including north and south, and east and west. In the south, red dates, peanuts, bacon, etc. are often mixed with glutinous rice to make it. In the north, jujube and preserved fruits are often used as the fillings of rice dumplings. The little rice dumpling seems to have become a symbol of Chinese tradition and occupies a certain position in people's hearts. In the past, there was a custom of hiding from noon during the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom originated from a belief that the fifth month is the "evil month", plague spreads, and the fifth day is an unlucky day, so parents all do it on this day. Children who are under one year old are taken to their grandmother's house to escape the disaster, so it is called Zangwu. This is undoubtedly a concept arising from the underdevelopment of science in ancient times. Because the heat of May is approaching, mosquitoes breed, and infectious diseases are prone to occur among people without medical and sanitary equipment. This brings a kind of fear to people, so they have to avoid midday* Customs, some of the ancient customs of this festival have disappeared with social changes, but customs such as eating rice dumplings and racing dragon boats are still popular.
Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon boat racing:
Dragon boat racing is the main custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. According to legend, it originated from the ancient Chu people who were reluctant to leave their virtuous minister Qu Yuan and threw himself into the river. Many people rowed boats to chase and save him. They scrambled to catch up and disappeared when they reached Dongting Lake. After that, dragon boat racing was held every May 5th to commemorate the event. He rowed dragon boats to disperse the fish in the river to prevent them from eating Qu Yuan's body. The sport of racing was popular in Wu, Yue and Chu.
In fact, "dragon boat racing" has been around since the Warring States Period. Carving a canoe into the shape of a dragon amidst the sound of drums and playing a boat racing game to entertain gods and people is a half-religious and half-entertainment program in the ritual.
Later, in addition to commemorating Qu Yuan, people in various places also attached different meanings to the dragon boat race.
Dragon boat racing in Jiangsu and Zhejiang also has the significance of commemorating Qiu Jin, a modern female democratic revolutionary born there. On the night dragon boat, lights and colorful decorations are lit, and people shuttle back and forth. The scenes on the water and under the water are moving and unique. The Miao people of Guizhou hold the "Dragon Boat Festival" from the 25th to the 28th of the fifth lunar month to celebrate the success of rice transplanting and wish for a good harvest. Compatriots of the Dai ethnic group in Yunnan compete in dragon boats during the Water Splashing Festival to commemorate the ancient hero Yan Hongwo.
Different ethnic groups and different regions have different legends about dragon boat racing. To this day, in many areas in the south near rivers, lakes and seas, dragon boat races with their own characteristics are held every year during the Dragon Boat Festival.
In the 29th year of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1736), dragon boat racing began in Taiwan. At that time, the prefect of Taiwan, Chiang Yuan-jun, hosted a friendly match at the Half-Moon Pool of Fahua Temple in Tainan City. Taiwan now holds a dragon boat race every May 5th. In Hong Kong, ferry races are also held.
In addition, dragon boat racing has also been introduced to neighboring countries such as Japan, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. In 1980, dragon boat racing was included in China's national sports competitions, and the "Qu Yuan Cup" dragon boat race is held every year. On June 16, 1991 (the fifth day of the fifth lunar month), the first International Dragon Boat Festival was held in Qu Yuan's second hometown, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, China. Before the race, a "Dragon Head Sacrifice" was held that not only preserved the traditional ceremony but also injected new modern elements. The dragon head is carried into the Quzi Temple. After the athletes put a red ribbon on the dragon head (wearing a red belt), the officiant reads the sacrificial text and consecrates the dragon head. Then, all the people participating in the dragon ceremony bowed three times, and the dragon's head was carried to the Miluo River and rushed to the dragon boat racing venue. More than 600,000 people participated in the competitions, trade fairs and party activities this time, which was an unprecedented event. Since then, Hunan has held the International Dragon Boat Festival regularly. Dragon boat racing will be popular all over the world.
Eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival:
Eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival is another traditional custom of the Chinese people. Zongzi is also called "corner millet" and "tube rice dumpling". It has a long history and has many variations.
According to records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, rice was wrapped in wild rice leaves (wild rice leaves) into the shape of horns, which was called "horn millet"; rice was packed in bamboo tubes and sealed and roasted, which was called "tube rice dumplings". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in wild rice leaves into a square shape and cooked to become Guangdong alkaline rice dumplings.
In the Jin Dynasty, rice dumplings were officially designated as the Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, the raw materials for making rice dumplings were also added with the traditional Chinese medicine Yizhiren. The cooked rice dumplings were called "Yizhizongzi". Zhou Chu's "Yueyang Fengtu Ji" records: It is customary to wrap millet in wild rice leaves, boil it, and eat it from May 5 to the summer solstice. It is called rice dumplings and millet. ?During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, mixed rice dumplings appeared. Rice is adulterated with animal meat, chestnuts, red dates, adzuki beans, etc., and the varieties are increasing. Zongzi is also used as a gift for social interactions.
In the Tang Dynasty, the rice used for rice dumplings was as white as jade, and its shape appeared conical or diamond-shaped. There is a record of "Datang Zongzi" in Japanese literature. In the Song Dynasty, there was already "preserved rice dumplings", that is, rice dumplings with fruits. The poet Su Dongpo once said that he sometimes saw bayberry in rice dumplings. At this time, there were also advertisements using rice dumplings to build pavilions and pavilions, wooden carts and horses, indicating that eating rice dumplings had become very fashionable in the Song Dynasty. During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the wrapping material of Zongzi changed from wild rice leaves to Ruo leaves. Later, Zongzi wrapped in reed leaves appeared. The additional ingredients include bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates, walnuts, etc., and the varieties became more colorful.
To this day, every year in early May, Chinese people soak glutinous rice, wash rice dumpling leaves, and make rice dumplings, with more varieties of colors. In terms of fillings, Beijing date rice dumplings mostly contain jujubes in the north; in the south, there are various fillings such as bean paste, fresh meat, ham, and egg yolks, among which Jiaxing rice dumplings in Zhejiang are the representative ones. The custom of eating rice dumplings has been popular in China for thousands of years and has spread to North Korea, Japan and other Southeast Asian countries.
Wearing sachets:
Children wear sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival. Legend has it that they are meant to ward off evil spirits and repel plague. They are actually used to decorate their lapels. The sachet contains cinnabar, realgar and fragrant medicine, and is wrapped with silk cloth, which overflows with fragrance. Five-color silk strings are then tied into ropes and made into various shapes to form a string. They are colorful, exquisite and cute.
Hang mugwort leaves and calamus:
Folk proverb says: "Put in willows during the Qingming Festival, and put in moxa at the Dragon Boat Festival." During the Dragon Boat Festival, people regard planting mugwort and calamus as one of the important contents. Every family sweeps the courtyard, inserts calamus and moxa sticks in the eyebrows of the door, and hangs them in the hall. They also use calamus, mugwort leaves, pomegranate flowers, garlic, and dragon boat flowers to shape or tiger-shaped shapes, which are called mugwort and mugwort tigers; they are made into garlands and ornaments, which are beautiful and fragrant, and women compete to wear them to drive away miasma.
Ai, also known as mugwort and mugwort. Its stems and leaves contain volatile aromatic oils. The peculiar aroma it produces can repel mosquitoes, flies, insects and ants, and purify the air. In traditional Chinese medicine, moxa moxa is used as medicine to regulate qi and blood, warm the uterus, and remove cold and dampness. The moxa leaves are processed into moxa rong, which is an important medicinal material for moxibustion treatment.
Calamus is a perennial aquatic herb. Its long and narrow leaves also contain volatile aromatic oil, which is a medicine that can refresh the mind, strengthen bones, eliminate stagnation, and kill insects and bacteria.
It can be seen that the ancients planted moxa and calamus to prevent diseases to a certain extent. The Dragon Boat Festival is also a "hygiene festival" passed down from ancient times. On this day, people sweep the courtyard, hang mugwort branches, hanging calamus, sprinkle realgar water, drink realgar wine, stimulate turbidity, remove rot, kill bacteria and prevent diseases. These activities also reflect the fine traditions of the Chinese nation. Going up the mountain to collect herbs during the Dragon Boat Festival is a common custom among all ethnic groups in my country.
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It is laughable that the Chu River is empty and indistinct, and cannot wash away the grievances of the direct ministers.
The talisman tends to be unconventional, but praying for wine will lead to peace.
The hair on the sideburns grows whiter day by day, and the pomegranate brocade illuminates the eyes every year;
Thousands of years of virtue and foolishness are the same in the blink of an eye, and a few people are forgotten and few are famous.
Race Song (Excerpt)
(Tang Dynasty) Zhang Jianfeng
On May 5th, the sky was bright and clear, and poplars circled the river and sang the dawn eagle;
Before the envoy left the county house, the chorus of harmony had been heard on the river;
The envoy was all right when he left, and the horse was already led by red flags;
Luo Luo on both sides of the bank The clothes smell fragrant, and the silver hairpin shines in the sun like a blade of frost;
The red flag opens three times with the sound of drums, and two dragons leap out of the floating water;
The shadows cast off the waves and thousands of swords fly, and the sound of drums Thousands of thunders crackle the waves;
The drums are getting louder and the mark is approaching, and the two dragons are looking at the mark as fast as an instant;
The people on the slope are shouting thunderbolts, and the poles are hung with rainbow colors;
The boat ahead grabbed the water and won the bid, but the boat behind lost momentum and was left empty-handed.
Festival Gate? Duanyang
(Qing Dynasty) Li Jingshan
Cherry, mulberry and calamus, and a pot of realgar wine.
There is a yellow paper sticker hanging high outside the door, but it is suspected that the account owner is afraid of the magic talisman.
Qilu? Dragon Boat Festival
Lao She
The Dragon Boat Festival happens to be stormy and rainy, and the village children are still wearing old clothes;
Inviting each other to reunite with each other. Coir raincoat hat, dare to be mud and fall deeply in love with the thatched cottage;
There are guests who treat each other as flesh and blood, but have no money to buy wine and sell articles;