The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period and has a history of more than 2,000 years. It is the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year. According to the records of "Jing Chu Sui Shi Ji", because midsummer ascends high, Shunyang is up, May is midsummer, and its first noon day is the day of good weather in Shunyang, so the fifth day of May is also called "Duanyang". Festival". In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Wu Sun Festival, May Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Poet Festival" and so on. The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional cultural festival popular in China and other countries in the Chinese character culture circle.
The Dragon Boat Festival originated in China. It was originally a totem sacrifice festival for the tribes who worshiped the dragon totem in the ancient Baiyue region (the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the south). Before the Spring and Autumn Period, there were tribes held in the form of dragon boat races on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The custom of totem sacrifice. Later, due to the Warring States Period, the poet Qu Yuan of Chu (now Hubei) boulder and jumped into the Miluo River to commit suicide on that day. In order to establish the patriotic label of loyalty to the emperor, the ruler used Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. There are also sayings in some areas to commemorate Wu Zixu and Cao E.
The Dragon Boat Festival, the Spring Festival, the Ching Ming Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival are also known as the four traditional Chinese folk festivals. Since ancient times, Dragon Boat Festival has had festivals such as dragon boating and eating rice dumplings. Since 2008, the Dragon Boat Festival has been listed as a national legal holiday. In May 2006, the State Council included it in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists; in September 2009, UNESCO formally reviewed and approved China’s Dragon Boat Festival to be included in the world’s intangible cultural heritage, making it China’s first selection of the world’s intangible cultural heritage. Intangible cultural heritage festival.
Dragon Boat Festival Customs
To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people. The Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional Chinese custom for more than two thousand years. Due to the vast area, numerous ethnic groups, and many stories and legends, not only many different festival names have been produced, but there are also different customs in different places. The main contents are: "My daughter goes back to her family's house, hangs the clock and Kui statue, welcomes ghost boats, hides in the afternoon, puts noon leaf symbols, hangs calamus and wormwood, travels all diseases, wears sachets, prepares livestock, races dragon boats, and flies kites. Contest, batting, swinging, bathing children with bitter grass and wheat, applying realgar, drinking realgar wine, calamus wine, eating five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, dumplings and seasonal fresh fruits."
It was originally a summer season to eradicate the plague. From this day’s indispensable activities for disease prevention and epidemic prevention, it gradually evolved into eating rice dumplings, racing dragon boats, hanging calamus, wormwood, wormwood, fumigating atractylodes, angelica, and drinking realgar wine. Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Dragon Boat Festival has been passed down to the people for more than two thousand years. There are many ways to say about the Dragon Boat Festival. Although the ways to spend them vary from place to place, making rice dumplings and boating dragon boats are common customs.
Dragon Boat Festival
The term "dragon boat" was first seen in the pre-Qin ancient book "Mu Tianzi Biography" Volume 5: "The emperor rides a bird boat and a dragon boat floats in the marsh." In the pre-"Nine Songs·Xiang King", "driving a flying dragon to the north, meet my way. "Dong Ting", "Ishiset is shallow, and the flying dragon is fluttering", scholars also think that "flying dragon" is a dragon boat.
Before the dragon boat race, you must first invite the dragon and worship the gods. For example, the Guangdong dragon boat must rise from the water before the Dragon Boat Festival. After worshipping the Nanhai god in the Nanhai Temple, the dragon head and tail are installed before preparing for the race. And buy a pair of small paper roosters and put them on the dragon boat, thinking that it can protect the boat (it can faintly correspond to the ancient bird boat). In Fujian and Taiwan, worship at Mazu Temple. Various rituals of sacrifice and commemoration are nothing more than lighting incense candles, burning paper money, and offering chicken, rice, meat, fruit, rice dumplings, etc. These superstitious ceremonies are rare nowadays, but in the past, people worshipped the Dragon Temple with a solemn atmosphere, praying for a good agricultural harvest, good weather, getting rid of evildoers, fighting disasters, and good luck, and also blessed boating. In people's words, "seeking auspiciousness" expresses people's inner good wishes. In Zigui, the hometown of Qu Yuan in Hubei, there are also rituals to worship Qu Yuan.
When rowing a dragon boat, there are many dragon boat songs sung. For example, when the dragon boat is rowing in Zigui, Hubei, there is a complete singing voice. The lyrics and music are based on the local folk songs and chants. The singing sound is magnificent and exciting, that is, the legacy of "lift and harmony". Another example is the Dragon Boat Song in Nanxiong County, Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province. It is sung until the Dragon Boat Festival after the dragon boat is launched in April. The content is very extensive.
Hanging Wormwood for Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is the first festival after the summer. The temperature rises, which is the time when diseases are frequent. So many years ago, people often hang a few wormwood at the door of their homes. Because of the special fragrance of wormwood, people use it to drive disease, Prevent mosquitoes and ward off evil spirits.
Hanging wormwood, calamus (pujian), pomegranate, and garlic at the door during the Dragon Boat Festival all have their reasons. The Ai, Banyan, and Acorus are usually tied into a bunch with red paper, and then inserted or hung on the door. Because the iris is the head of the five auras in the sky, it symbolizes the sword of exorcising ominousness. Because the season and appearance of the growth are regarded as the sense of "the air of a hundred yin", the leaves are sword-shaped, which can be inserted at the door to avoid evil. So the alchemists called it the "water sword", and the later custom was extended to the "pu sword", which can kill thousands of evils. In the Qing Jialu of the Qing Dynasty, Gu Tieqing had a record of "cutting the pu as a sword, cutting the canopy as a whip, and using peach stalk garlic as a side, hanging on the bed, all to kill ghosts."
Eat Zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival
Every year in early May, every family in China has to soak glutinous rice, wash zong leaves, and wrap zongzi. The variety of patterns is even more diverse. From the perspective of the fillings, there are many Beijing jujube dumplings in the north; there are many fillings such as bean paste, fresh meat, ham, and egg yolk in the south. Among them, Zhejiang Jiaxing Zongzi is the representative. The custom of eating zongzi has prevailed in China for thousands of years, and has spread to North Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries.
Finally, HXN wish you all a happy and healthy Dragon Boat Festival!