When is the Dragon Boat Festival?

Dragon Boat Festival is one of the three major festivals, which falls on May 5th in Gregorian calendar and June 8th in new calendar. Do you know the origin of Dragon Boat Festival? I know, because the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is one of the biggest traditional festivals in China. Dragon Boat Festival is also called Dragon Boat Festival, which means the same as Wu Chu's, just like the fifth day. The word "five" in the Dragon Boat Festival is also connected with "noon". According to the order of earthly branches, May is "noon" month. Because noon is the "sun", the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duanyang". On May 5th, both the month and the day are five, so calling five is also called noon. In addition, there are many nicknames for the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: Summer Festival, Magnolia Festival, Daughter's Day, Tianzhong Festival, Dila Festival, Poet's Day and so on.

Many nicknames of the Dragon Boat Festival indirectly explain the differences in the origin of the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. That's what happened. There are at least four or five theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: in memory of Qu Yuan; Wuyue's national totem sacrifice theory: From the three generations of summer solstice festival; Evil month and evil day drive away, and so on. So far, the most influential view on the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan. In the field of folk culture, China people associate dragon boat racing and eating zongzi with Qu Yuan. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan jumped into the river, the local people injured him and died, so they sailed to save him because of the custom of racing. He also said that people often put food into the water to offer sacrifices to Qu Yuan, but most of the food was eaten by dragons. Later, due to Qu Yuan's suggestion, they wrapped rice in neem leaves, wrapped it in colored silk, and later made it look like zongzi.

The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival mainly include: eating zongzi, putting moxa or calamus on the door to exorcise evil spirits, tying long life wisps, drinking realgar wine or disinfection, and racing dragon boats. Zongzi is also called "Jiao Shu" and "Zongzi". The former is named after its angular shape and glutinous rice inside, while the latter is likely to cook rice with a bamboo tube. Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival was very popular in Wei and Jin Dynasties. This kind of food is eaten on the Dragon Boat Festival and the summer solstice every year. Zongzi is also a holiday gift. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Zongzi was very famous and was often sold in the market. Now, we still have to eat some zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. There are many kinds of zongzi, which are different from north and south, and also from east and west. In the south, red dates, peanuts and bacon are often mixed in glutinous rice, and other foods are common, but you should taste the fragrance of Zongye; In the north, dates and preserved fruits are often used as stuffing for zongzi. Xiaozongzi seems to have become a traditional symbol of China, occupying a certain position in people's minds. In the past, there was a custom of hiding in the afternoon during the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom originated from a belief that May is an "evil month" and plagues and sores will spread. The fifth day is an unlucky day, so parents take their children under one year old to grandma's house every day to avoid disaster, so they call it afternoon hiding. This is undoubtedly an underdeveloped concept in ancient science, because the summer heat in May came, mosquitoes flourished, and people without medical and health facilities were prone to infectious diseases, which brought people fear and led to the custom of hiding in the afternoon. Now some ancient customs of this festival have disappeared with the changes of society, but customs such as eating zongzi and dragon boat racing are still popular.