What are the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival? Are they still not quite the same in different places?

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated every year, but the customs are different in different parts of the country.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and it is an ancient and important traditional festival of the Han Chinese people, with a history of more than 2,000 years.

About the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are many sayings, among which to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan said the broadest and deepest influence, occupies the mainstream position.

Qu Yuan (340 BC - 278 BC) was a nobleman of the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period, the first great patriotic poet in Chinese history, and the founder of Chinese Romantic literature. He was a minister of the state of Chu, advocating the appointment of the best and the brightest, cultivating the law, and advocating the alliance of Qi against Qin. However, he was ostracized and exiled. In 278 B.C., when Qin destroyed Chu, Qu Yuan was filled with grief and indignation, and on the fifth day of the fifth month, he sank himself into the Miluo River, martyring his country.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu mourned his death and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. Fishermen rowed their boats up and down the river to retrieve his body. One fisherman took out the rice balls and eggs prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river so that the fish and shrimp would not bite Qu Yuan's body after they had eaten enough. People followed his example. An old physician brought an altar of Xionghuang wine and poured it into the river, saying that it was to stun the dragon and water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, on the fifth day of the fifth month of every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink andrographis wine custom, in order to commemorate Qu Yuan.

In 2006, by the zigui county of hubei province "qu yuan hometown of the Dragon Boat Customs", huangshi city of "xise god boat will", and hunan miluo city of "miluo river Dragon Boat Customs "In 2009, UNESCO formally considered and approved the inscription of the Dragon Boat Festival of China on the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In 2009, UNESCO formally considered and approved the inclusion of the Dragon Boat Festival in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage, making it the first Chinese festival to be selected as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Qu Yuan's hometown festival when the song

Zigui County, Hubei Province is the hometown of Qu Yuan, but also the birthplace of the Dragon Boat Festival and dragon boat culture. For thousands of years, zigui people to commemorate the qu yuan formed a unique year seasonal customs, that is, the qu yuan hometown of the Dragon Boat custom.

Zigui folk Dragon Boat Festival customs magical and unique, the local people from the end of the fourth month of the lunar calendar began to prepare for the Dragon Boat Festival, and every year in May, the local people have to have three Dragon Boat Festival: in the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar over the "head of the Dragon Boat Festival"; the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar over the "Dragon Boat Festival"; May 25th over the "Dragon Boat Festival"; May 25th over the "Dragon Boat Festival". "; May 25 and then "end of the afternoon", the entire May are filled with dumplings and the fragrance of mugwort leaves.

"Dragon Boat Festival is bigger than the year, the girl back to her mother's home." Married women with their husbands and children back to their mother's home for the Dragon Boat Festival is another important custom, folk called "hide Danyang". According to legend, Qu Yuan was banished to his hometown, his sister returned home to console Qu Yuan, "Qu Yuan has a virtuous sister, heard the original banishment, but also to return, because the name is sister return", the same hometown married women have to follow the example of the Qu sister to return to her mother's home, and since then this custom has been preserved to this day.

In the poet Qu Yuan's birthplace - Le Pingli, still retains a folk poetry organization "Sao Tan", members of the community to love poetry, mainly farmers, poetry content to hang Qu Yuan, eulogy of the times as the theme, known as "China's first peasant poetry society". It is known as "China's first peasant poetry society". Every year in the fragrance of the May Dragon Boat Festival, Le Ping Li always organize a poetry meeting. Sao Tan Poetry Society of peasant poets gathered at the Qu Yuan Temple, than the text of the poem, they used the Qu Yuan hometown of the soil accent and singing their own poetry, to Sao poetry to honor Qu Yuan. This cultural practice has been passed down from generation to generation and has become a unique humanistic tradition and landscape in Le Pingli.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, dragon boats are rowed in many places, but the ceremony of swimming in the river and invoking the soul before rowing the dragon boat is unique to Qu Yuan's hometown. Legend has it that when the news of Qu Yuan's casting of the river reached Qu Yuan's hometown, Qu Yuan's sister, Qu Missy Gurl sad, paddling up the boat, along the river to beckon the soul, sobbing and singing: "My brother yo - back to yo oh-". "The townspeople are also very sentimental, have to manipulate the boat, along with her for Qu Yuan swim river soul, hope that Qu Yuan's soul to return to their hometown. Since then, every Dragon Boat Festival, the pathos of the "invocation song" will always be again and again to shock people's hearts and minds, to become the Qu Yuan hometown to commemorate the Qu Yuan reserved project - the river invocation.

Wrapping and eating palms at the Dragon Boat Festival is a custom in many places, but there is also a custom in Qu Yuan's hometown of tossing palms into the river during the river cruise. Legend has it that when folks salvage the body of qu yuan, the zongzi have put into the river, so that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat their fill, so that the fish and shrimp do not eat qu yuan's body. At zigui, zongzi is sent to the folks of qu yuan's thoughts and reverence. The green leaves imply that Qu Yuan is evergreen, the snow-white glutinous rice indicates that Qu Yuan is as pure as jade, and the sharp edges indicate that Qu Yuan is upright. A red date represents Qu Yuan's patriotic heart.

May 25 "end of the afternoon", zigui local will have rice field entertainment. The end of the midnight, family reunion, friends and relatives gathered, while celebrating the summer harvest, led by a family or several families, inviting the whole village relatives and neighbors to entertain themselves, jumping flower-drum opera, singing folk songs, playing music ensemble, rowing dry dragon boat, play lion, etc., often overnight. At the same time, the end of the afternoon and "send God boat" activities. Up to this point, zigui Dragon Boat Festival is considered the official end.

Xisai Dragon Boat Festival

Every year from the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar to the eighteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Huangshi City, Hubei Province, the villagers of the mountainous area of Xisai Daoshi baggage villagers will be self-organized to participate in a traditional folk cultural activities - Xisai Shenzhou will be. The activity to drive away the plague, in addition to evil, disaster, disease and seek peace and health, longevity as the core theme, mainly through the "send Shenzhou" this form for the people of a party to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings, and to memorialize Qu Yuan.

The main activities of the Xisei Dragon Boat Festival include a series of ceremonies and activities such as rituals, parades and launching of the boat. From holding the dragon boat's opening ceremony, tie up the Shenzhou, to the May 5 Zi time by the Taoist priests presided over the ceremony for the Shenzhou enlightenment, and then May 15 to 18 of the Shenzhou will be the official session, the whole event lasted 40 days, is the current domestic Dragon Boat Festival longer pray for blessings and offerings and hangings activities.

The core of the divine boat will be the divine boat, the boat carries 108 boat gods, they come from the heaven, the underworld, the fairy world, the world of God, society, nature and other aspects, there are Qu Yuan, Niangniang, the landlord, the water god, twelve flower gods, chickens, ducks, tigers, horses, and the four gods of the plague and so on. The Xisai people's belief in gods has no distinction between the noble and the lowly, and has no gateway. These gods since the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar began to tie, until the eighteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar to board the river in the sacred boat, has always hosted a variety of psychological demands during the Dragon Boat Festival Xisai people. The most important god on the boat is the "Black Master".

"Black master" is a local protection god, the first main god of the boat god, the god of the mountain. He has been worshipped by the people of Xisai since the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar as the lord of the land, the nemesis of the plague and the savior of farming. Every year on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the Xisai Shenzhou Association will hold a "collection of prohibited" ceremony, the "spring plague of all the obscenity of the hundred poisons," as much as possible into the "Black Master" in the waist pocket, and then put the The "Black Master" is invited into the Shenzhou Palace to be enshrined. On the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the people of Xisai, in the midst of incense offerings, worships, and incantation songs, will collect all the "spring plague, all the filth, all the poisons," the "Black Master" and the other 107 gods are invited to the Shenzhou one by one.

At 8 a.m. on the 16th day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, every household hangs calamus and mugwort leaves by the door, sets up a joss stick and burns incense and candles, and puts on offerings such as wine, tea, rice and fruits. Each to a family, the villagers are to meet the whip, spread tea and rice, worship. On the evening of May 17 of the lunar calendar, 48 long lamps were lit for the Shenzhou, and all-night Jiaojiao vigil. Lunar May 18 morning boat out of the Palace, Taoist priests and the boat will be all members of the *** with the boat to open the way, by 16 strong young man carrying the boat into the river, let the water carry the dragon boat down the river, east into the sea. And those "spring plague all filth and poison" will be escorted by 108 gods, far away from Xisai far away from the earth, the villagers are hands together, kneeling to worship the divine boat, praying for a year of happiness, well-being.

Mass cultural activities during the activities of the Shenzhou Hui colorful, carefully tied platforms and pavilions, carved beams and paintings of exquisite craftsmanship, magnificent, very distinctive, with high artistic value, in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River region has a greater impact.

Miluo Dragon Boat Racing

Miluo River Dragon Boat Racing is a Dragon Boat Racing custom with a whole set of rich, unique and mysterious Dragon Boat Racing customs, which are distributed in Miluo City, Hunan Province, along the middle and lower reaches of the Miluo River Basin. The Miluo River Dragon Boat Festival generally begins on the first day of the fifth lunar month and ends on the fifteenth day of the fifth lunar month, and the entire festival has a long history, a wide range of masses, rich diversity, rich culture, fervent participation and far-reaching influence. In addition to organizing feasts, eating zongzi, inserting ai hanging calamus, drinking xionghuang wine, racing dragon boats, carving dragon heads, stealing sacred wood, dragon boat launching, towards the temple, sacrificing dragons, sacrificing Qu and so on have mysterious rituals and unique cultural connotations.

Miluo man-made dragon boat, the bottom of the boat that the main wood (commonly known as the dragon bone) must be stolen. Because the stolen wood is called God wood, boat building is paddling fast. Whenever identified to a large family or timber merchants home storage of wood, boat builders at night in the first half of the night, a group of four people, to be master of the inattentive, two people violently will be the wood on the shoulder, the third person that is quickly bolted to the middle of the wood on a red cloth, said that the wood is taken for the Dragon Boat, the fourth hiding in the front of the house of the wood stealers, and so in front of the person walked more than a hundred meters, then ignited in the hands of the firecrackers, provoking the master of the house to catch up. Homeowners know that their wood was stolen to do the dragon bone wood, the heart secretly happy, run a few steps will not chase.

Carving the dragon head to choose a high-quality camphor wood, dragon boat chiefs invited to the carver to bathe and burn incense, to the sky worship, choose an auspicious day to start carving the dragon head. The carver must pay attention to fast and good when doing it. The place where the dragon head is carved is a forbidden area, and no one is allowed to peek at it. After the completion of the dragon's head, a celebration ceremony will be held, after which the first division will be responsible for honoring the dragon's head, setting up tea, wine and fruits, and continuously burning incense throughout the day.

Making a dragon boat should also choose an auspicious day and time to hold a wood ceremony. Hair wood time is generally chosen at the time, the dragon boat is not as mysterious as the carving of the dragon head, but in the hair of the wood time, to be closed, in addition to the head of the Division and the helpers are present, the rest of the casualties are not allowed to be present. The speed of making dragon boat is very fast, usually no more than three days, sometimes one day and one night can be. Participants in the production of dragon boats, in addition to the ink master to collect the package seal and a bucket of rice, the rest of the people do not want to pay, they have to eat their own food, take the initiative to do things. Blacksmith nails are donated to send, reflecting a selfless, united and friendly spirit.

Dragon boat launch on the first day of May, before the water, the road all obstacles the first day was removed, all personnel should also be avoided to ensure unimpeded. First by a young unmarried man familiar with the water on the back of the dragon head fast running, has been rushed to the middle of the river, holding up the dragon head five sinking five up, worship five parties, called the dragon head bath. After that, the man who carries the dragon head swims back to the shallow water on the bank and installs the dragon head on the dragon boat. The paddler lifts the boat with his hands, the man boat rushes into the river, the paddler re-sits inside the boat and paddles the dragon boat to the temple.

The pilgrimage to the temple, also known as the pilgrimage to the incense, has two meanings in the region: one is the sacrifice of Qu and the other is the sacrifice of the dragon. Only the dragons participating in the pilgrimage can be blessed by Qu Yuan, paddle safely and win the race.

Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival in addition to the evil

In Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the grandest annual folk festivals, with a full set of local natural climatic conditions, daily production and living habits, economic and cultural characteristics of the folk activities. Although some of the activities are not very different from the Dragon Boat Festival activities in other places, the details reflect the unique water town flavor of Suzhou.

Before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, when the weather turns hot, "a hundred bugs come out, and the evil spirit prevails". Especially in the south of Suzhou, the rainy season, the air is humid, suitable for a variety of bacteria and pathogenic bacteria growth and reproduction, infectious diseases are also prone to epidemic. So, before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, people use moxa leaves, calamus hanging on the door to avoid evil spirits, or with Chen Ai, Cangzhu, Angelica dahurica, andrographis and other traditional Chinese medicines mixed in the indoor courtyard fumigation, but also in the corners of the walls of the damp places sprinkled with lime water, spraying andrographis and so on, the mosquitoes and flies smell the flavor will escape. There are also some people andrographis end into the wine, smeared on the foreheads of small children and hands and feet heart, this custom is called "painting forehead", is also to drive away the evil spirits. There are wells in the family, will also be a piece of yellow, wrapped in silk, into the well, in order to get rid of the poison in the water.

In fact, andrographis is a mineral, warm, bitter taste, poisonous, mainly used as detoxification, insecticide. According to Chinese medicine, andrographis is used externally to treat scabies and malignant sores, snake and insect bites, etc., the effect is better.

Scented bag, also known as scented bag, scented bag, purse, Dragon Boat Festival, Suzhou custom to wear scented bag.

Old embroidered scented sachets is an extremely important women's red, every Dragon Boat Festival eve, the women's chamber will be early preparations, in their own good scented sachets on the design of novelty decorations, and then cleverly add embroidery, flowers, plants, beasts and other auspicious patterns, a variety of different shapes, scented sachets commonly used andrographis, but also will be added to the Cangzhu, Angelica dahuricica, Acorus calamus, ice, and other traditional Chinese medicines, after the Dragon Boat Festival will be worn over the scented sachets thrown away! In order to discard the plague. Dragon Boat Festival to wear scented sachets, although it is a folklore, can be decorated to embellish the festive atmosphere, but also has a practical fragrance, insect repellent, to avoid the plague, disease prevention function, is a scientific method of preventing plague. Summer, a variety of infectious diseases began to epidemic, the ancients in order to ensure the health of children, made of traditional Chinese medicine scented pouch tethered to the children's lapel and shoulder coat, can play a good preventive role.

The dumplings are the most representative of the Dragon Boat Festival food, families in the Dragon Boat Festival are wrapped dumplings. Compared to the northern zongzi to sweet flavor, Jiangnan zongzi sweet less salty more. The most representative are fresh meat dumplings, bacon dumplings, egg yolk dumplings, ham dumplings and so on.

In addition to eating zongzi, Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival, another representative of the diet is "five yellow" - yellow fish, cucumber, eel, yellow wine and duck egg yolk.

Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival food "five yellow" custom, but also because these ingredients are seasonal ingredients: eel, yellow fish are the season's most fertile, the local cucumber is just listed in the summer when the best, salted duck egg yolks are the best food with rice in the summer in Suzhou people. Suzhou people traditionally also have "not time not to eat" habits - such as the Qingming Festival, Suzhou people to eat green dumplings, which is the production of green dumplings raw material pulp wheat grass is the most suitable for juicing season; April 8 to eat rice, this time is the most important raw materials, rice trees The most tender leaves of the season; winter solstice to drink winter wine, because one of the raw materials of the osmanthus only in winter ......

Since ancient times, the Chinese people on the "unity of mankind" thought to be highly respected, people should return to nature, the integration of nature, the treatment of food is no exception. The Chinese people have always respected the idea of "unity of heaven and mankind" since ancient times.