What is the Dragon Boat Festival?

Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanyang Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Zhengyang Festival, Magnolia Festival and Tianzhong Festival, is a traditional folk festival in China. Dragon Boat Festival originated from the worship of astronomical phenomena and evolved from the ancient dragon totem sacrifice. On the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, the black dragon flies in the south of the sky for seven nights, which is the day of the dragonfly, that is, as the fifth divination in the Book of Changes says: "Long Zaitian"; At this time, Longxing is both "middle" and "middle", which is bound to win, and Enshi is also the aspiration of the people. The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival covers the ancient astrological culture, humanistic philosophy and other aspects, and contains profound and rich cultural connotations. The Dragon Boat Festival combines a variety of folk customs in its inheritance and development, and the festival customs are rich in content. Picking dragon boats and eating zongzi are two major customs of the Dragon Boat Festival. These two traditional customs have been handed down in China since ancient times and have never stopped.

Dragon Boat Festival, which originated in China, was originally chosen by ancient ancestors as an auspicious day to worship their ancestors. It is said that Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu State in the Warring States Period, threw himself into the Miluo River during the Dragon Boat Festival. Later, people also took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. There are also sayings in memory of Wu Zixu, Cao E and meson push. Generally speaking, the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the dragon totem sacrifice of the ancestors of Wu Yue in the south, and injected the seasonal fashion of "eliminating diseases and preventing epidemic" in summer. The Dragon Boat Festival originated from the "bad month and bad day" in the north, accompanied by the commemoration of Qu Yuan and other historical figures, and finally formed the cultural connotation of today's Dragon Boat Festival.

Dragon Boat Festival, Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival are also called the four traditional folk festivals in China. Dragon Boat Festival culture has a wide influence in the world, and some countries and regions in the world also celebrate it. In May 2006, the State Council listed it in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list; Since 2008, it has been listed as a national statutory holiday. In September, 2009, UNESCO officially approved its inclusion in the representative list of intangible cultural heritage of mankind, and the Dragon Boat Festival became the first festival in China to be selected as a world intangible heritage.