The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival originated from the worship of astronomical phenomena and evolved from the ancient dragon totem sacrifice. The customs and habits of the Dragon Boat Festival are related to primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, the calendar of cadres and branches, and the astronomical phenomena of the Black Dragon staying in the south for seven nights. But "Qu Yuan said" is the most recognized.

festival name

Dragon Boat Festival "Dragon Boat Festival" first appeared in the local chronicles of the Western Jin Dynasty: "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, also known as May 5, is the same as the summer solstice." Duan, which means beginning and beginning in ancient Chinese, is called "Dragon Boat Festival", that is, "the fifth day". Shuo Wen Jie Zi contains: "Duan is also the topic of the birth of all things", which means that Duan means beginning, so the fifth day of May is called "Dragon Boat Festival". The Chronicle of Yanjing's Years Old says: "The fifth day of May is May, and the transliteration of the word Duan is also stamped." The ancients used to call the first few days of May end to end respectively. The book "Guangji at the Age of Years" says: "The dusty people in Shi Jing City start with the first day of May, the second day of May, and the even number five." According to the order of heavenly stems and earthly branches, May is "noon" and noon is "sunny", so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Duanyang in rural areas. Dragon Boat Festival has evolved for thousands of years. Dragon Boat Festival originated from the worship of dragon totem in ancient China. On the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, the Black Dragon stayed for seven nights, just south of Zhongtian, with a good location.

Festival culture

Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanyang Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chongwu Festival and Tianzhong Festival. It is a folk festival that combines offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, praying for evil spirits, celebrating entertainment and eating. The Dragon Boat Festival originated from the worship of natural phenomena and evolved from the ancient Dragon Boat Festival. On the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, the Black Dragon spent seven nights in Nanzhong, which is the most "positive" position in the whole year, just like the fifth poem in the Book of Changes: "The flying dragon is in the sky". Dragon Boat Festival is an auspicious day when dragons fly in the sky. Dragon and dragon boat culture have been running through the inheritance history of Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional cultural festival popular in China and other countries in the Chinese character cultural circle.

Historical origin

The origin of ancient traditional festivals is related to ancient primitive beliefs, sacrifices, astronomical phenomena, calendars and other humanistic and natural cultural contents. Most of the traditional festivals in ancient times were formed in the activities of the ancients who chose auspicious day sacrifices to thank the gods of heaven and earth and the ancestors for their kindness. The early festival culture reflects the ancient people's humanistic spirit of advocating nature and the unity of man and nature. A series of sacrificial activities contain profound and rich cultural connotations of ritual and music civilization. The origin and development of festivals is a process of gradual formation, subtle improvement and dissemination. The customs of ancient North and South are different, and the activities of the Dragon Boat Festival in the pre-Qin period are rarely recorded in the existing literature, so it is impossible to directly verify its origin. According to the written records about the Dragon Boat Festival, the word "Dragon Boat Festival" first appeared in the local customs of the Jin Dynasty, but the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival has long existed, and so has the custom of dragon boat racing.

Holiday food

Zongzi Zan: It was called "Jiaoshu" in ancient times. Zongzi recorded in real words can be found in the records of local customs in Jin and Zhou Dynasties. And spread in an orderly manner. There are many shapes and varieties of zongzi, such as regular triangle, regular quadrangle, pointed triangle, square and strip. Due to the different flavors in different parts of China, there are mainly two kinds: sweet and salty. ?

Festival significance

Dragon Boat Festival, Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival are also called the four traditional 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.

Festival legend

In ancient times, Baiyue people had the custom of serial tattoos. They think they are descendants of dragons, and they live by the water. The ancient Baiyue people offered sacrifices to their dragon ancestors on the Dragon Boat Festival. Later, because Qin Shihuang ruled the country, most of the ancient Baiyue people merged with the Han people. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival has become a traditional festival for the Han people. Today, the inheritance of Dragon Boat Festival has gradually lost the inheritance of ancestor worship ceremony, and has been given new significance in the development of the times. Now the meaning of Dragon Boat Festival has been given different meanings in different source myths.

Commemorate celebrities

1, the legend of the Dragon Boat Festival-in memory of Qu Yuan, the most famous scholar-bureaucrat of Chu. Qu Yuan was a minister in Chu Huaiwang during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated uniting with Qi to resist Qin, but his political views were strongly opposed by aristocratic children at that time, so the ministers wrote a letter of recommendation to impeach Qu Yuan, and Qu Yuan was removed from his official position and exiled to today's Hunan area. During his exile, he wrote many famous poems, such as Li Sao, Tian Wen and Nine Songs, which were all learned in our primary school textbooks. His poems retain a large number of Chu culture and customs, as well as a large number of myths and legends, and have made outstanding contributions to the study of mythology. At that time, Qu Yuan's poems were melodious, catchy and of high literary value. But this outstanding writer was not a qualified politician and was not accepted by the political system of other countries, but he died for his country in the end. In 278 BC, the God of War of Qin led an army to attack the capital of Chu. On the fifth day of May this year, Qu Yuan, who was deeply despaired and humiliated, threw himself into the Miluo River. When Chu people heard that Qu Yuan died in the river, they all felt very sad. Fishermen went around by boat to salvage Dr. Qu's body. When salvaging, the Chu people were worried that the fish, shrimps and dragons in the river would hurt Qu Yuan's health, so they prepared rice balls, eggs and other foods and sent them to the Miluo River. They threw rice balls and eggs into the river, praying that the fish and shrimp would not hurt Qu Yuan's health when they were full. Although the fish and shrimp are full, the dragon in the water is still worried, but no matter how big the difficulty is, it can't stop the wise man. At this time, an old Chinese doctor brought a can of realgar wine and poured it into the river. It is said that this can stun river dragons and aquatic veterinary drugs. After all this, Chu people are still very worried. They were afraid that the dragon would rob the fish and shrimp of their food, so they wrapped the rice balls with leaves and ribbons to form the zongzi we ate today. It also formed the custom of dragon boat racing, eating zongzi and drinking realgar wine today.

2. Legend of the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival-In memory of Wu Zixu, there is another saying that the Dragon Boat Festival actually exists in memory of Wu Zixu. This legend is mainly circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Wu Zixu was also a native of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. Unlike Qu Yuan, Qu Yuan died after the country was destroyed, while Wu Zixu arrived in Wu overnight because his father and brother were killed by the King of Chu. In order to avenge his father and brother, he helped the king of Wu defeat Chu. After five fierce battles, he entered Yingcheng, the capital of Chu. Wu Zixu is also a fierce man. When he invaded Chu, King Chu Ping, who killed his father and brother, was already dead and had been buried for a long time. However, in order to avenge his father and brother, he dug graves and whipped the bodies. To some extent, he is the originator of grave digging! It may be because Wu Zixu's behavior of digging graves and whipping corpses did too much harm to Yin De, and the final outcome was not very good. After the death of Prince He Lu, his son Fu Cha succeeded to the throne. At that time, Wu Jun's morale was high, and he won a great victory. Wu Zixu thought that we should directly attack the capital of Yue State and destroy Yue State, but Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, listened to the slanderers of the minister and thought that Wu Zixu had the heart of treason, so he gave Wu Zixu a sword and asked him to die. Wu Zixu, who can dig a grave and whip a corpse to avenge his father, treats himself equally fiercely. In order to realize his wish, he said to his neighbor before he died, "When I die, I will gouge out my eyes and hang them in the capital of Wu, and watch the Vietnamese army destroy Wu." Say that finish, Wu Zixu committed suicide. Fu Cha, the king of Wu, was very angry, so he ordered Wu Zixu's body to be put in leather and thrown into the river on May 5th. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also said to commemorate Wu Zixu. Legend of the origin of Dragon Boat Festival —— In memory of the filial piety of Cao Mo China since ancient times.

The legend of Dragon Boat Festival is about filial piety. According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a woman named Cao E, a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. One day, when her father was out, he accidentally fell into the river and drowned, but strangely enough, after her father died, she searched the river for many days and found no body. At that time, Cao E, who was only 14 years old, cried all night because she missed her poor father. Crying is not enough. After crying 17 days, Cao E may be short-circuited because of sadness, and she also threw herself into the river on May 5. The story behind is wonderful. On the fifth day after Cao threw himself into the river, he finally fished her father's body out of the river. Of course, Cao E's behavior is not desirable for us today. Now, even with advanced medical technology, there is no way to save a dead person, so it is not worth putting your life on a corpse. Of course, we do not advocate that minors should be brave regardless of their own situation. Now they can't be like Cao E in the myth, who died for five days and floated up with the body to save people in the river. After all, as a minor, you may have to take the college entrance examination tomorrow and the day after tomorrow! Although we don't advocate it now, it is highly respected to surpass this behavior in the Eastern Han Dynasty. So when the local county magistrate heard about it, he set up a monument for her. Later, because of the passage of time and the myth of later generations, the work of this monument gradually became the work of building temples, and Cao E also had the right to sacrifice and incense. The legend of the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival-the theory of evil days The fourth theory about the Dragon Boat Festival comes from the ancient cognition of astronomy. The ancients believed that May was a poisonous month, and the fifth day of every year was an evil day. There is a folk saying called "rotten May", which means that every year in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, wooden rattan products are prone to damp, mildew and rot, and people are also prone to get sick this month. The ancients thought that this month people were very weak, easy to get sick, and should not have sex. Therefore, in ancient times, there was a custom that a woman who got married in May every year went back to her parents' home to live for one month, in order to prevent both husband and wife from indulging in physical harm. As for this statement, it is unscientific, so they have their own opinions. Song Huizong Evonne, a famous romantic emperor in the Song Dynasty, was born on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so he was fostered outside the palace since he was a child. After being raised outside the palace, he became emperor. Although he has no outstanding achievements, he is still famous. The most famous one was drilling under Li Shishi's bed. They make love in bed, and Zhou Bangyan writes lyrics under the bed. Because people born this month are prone to physical weakness, special attention should be paid to eliminating evil and restraining evil. Therefore, on this day, people often insert wormwood and calamus on the door to ward off ghosts and evil spirits, and smoke Atractylodes macrocephala and Angelica dahurica to drink realgar wine to ward off the plague and pray for good health.