The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival (nickname: Duanyang Festival, Midday Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Zhengyang Festival, Magnolia Festival, Tianzhong Festival, English name: Dragon Boat Festival) is the first festival in China to be included in the world intangible cultural heritage. It falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year, and it is called the four traditional festivals in China together with the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. Dragon Boat Festival was originally a festival to drive away plague and dragon boat festival in summer. Later, people took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan, and there were also sayings to commemorate Wu Zixu, Cao E and Jiezitui.

The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, also known as Duanyang Festival, Noon Festival, May Festival, May Festival, Ai Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Noon Festival, Noon Festival and Summer Festival. It was originally a festival to drive away the plague in summer. Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of Han nationality in China. The essential activities of this day gradually evolved into eating zongzi, dragon boat racing, hanging calamus, wormwood and wormwood leaves, smoking Atractylodes rhizome and angelica dahurica, and drinking realgar wine.

It is said that the custom of eating zongzi and racing dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan, a great poet in the history of China. It is precisely because of this that the Dragon Boat Festival was named "Poet's Day" after liberation. Qu Yuan is one of the greatest romantic poets in China, and also the earliest known famous poet and world cultural celebrity in China. He initiated the style of "Chu Ci" and the tradition of "vanilla beauty". His representative works include Li Sao and Nine Songs.

In the history of our country, the saying that the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan has a history of 1500 years. According to legend, after Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, the local people immediately rowed for rescue, and all the way to Dongting Lake, but Qu Yuan's body was never seen. It was raining at that time, and the boats on the lake gathered at the pavilion on the shore. When people learned that it was to salvage the sage Dr. Qu, they went out in the rain and rushed into the vast Dongting Lake. In order to mourn, people rowed on rivers, and later it gradually developed into a dragon boat race. People were afraid that fish in the river would eat his body, so they went home and threw rice balls into the river to prevent fish and shrimp from ruining Qu Yuan's body. Later, eating zongzi became a custom.

The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival

The two symbolic customs of the Dragon Boat Festival are picking dragon boats and eating zongzi. Dragon and dragon boat culture always runs through the inheritance history of Dragon Boat Festival. According to research, the prerequisite of dragon boat race must be in the port area where there are many rivers and rice, which is the characteristic of the southern coastal areas of China. As a culture, dragon boat appeared much earlier than Qu Yuan's time. In Huainan Custom Training, it is recorded that "Hu people are convenient for horses, while Yue people are convenient for boats". Among the records of the origin of dragon boat in ancient books, it first appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. According to this, it can be speculated that the custom of Dragon Boat Festival may be popular only in wuyue ethnic groups in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River at first, and then the Wuyue culture gradually merged with the Central Plains culture, and this custom spread to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the northern regions. ?

Eat zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival. Zongzi, or "Zongzi Zan", is commonly known as Zongzi. Its main materials are glutinous rice and stuffing, and it is wrapped with Indocalamus leaves (or Hiragi leaves) into various shapes, such as sharp corners and quadrangles. Zongzi has a long history, originally as a tribute to ancestors and gods. After being introduced to the north, it is made of millet (produced in the north), which is called "corn millet". Because of the different eating habits in different places, zongzi has formed a north-south flavor; In terms of taste, zongzi can be divided into salty zongzi and sweet zongzi. The custom of eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival has been popular in China for thousands of years, and it has become one of the most influential and extensive folk food customs of the Chinese nation, and spread to North Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

The Dragon Boat Festival should also express blessings and respects in various ways, praying for the prosperity of the motherland, social harmony and stability, and people's living and working in peace and contentment.