What is the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival on May 15th?

According to folklore, there are "big, medium and small" divisions. The "First Dragon Boat Festival" is celebrated on the fifth day of May; the "Big Dragon Boat Festival" is celebrated on May 15;

One of the festivals.

The meaning of "Duan" is the same as "the beginning". Calling "Duanwu" is like calling "the fifth day of the lunar month"; the word "五" in Duanwu is also connected with "Wu". According to the order of the earthly branches, May is the day of "Wu".

"moon.

And because noon is "Yang Chen", the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duan Yang".

On May 5th, the month and day are both five, so it is called Chongwu, also called Chongwu.

In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many other names, such as: Summer Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Girl's Day, Tianzhong Festival, Dila, Poet's Day, etc.

There are so many nicknames for the Dragon Boat Festival, which indirectly illustrates the differences in the origin of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival.

This is exactly what happened.

Regarding the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are at least four or five theories today, such as: the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan; the theory of Wuyue national totem sacrifice; the theory of starting from the Summer Solstice Festival in three generations; the theory of driving away evil moons and evil days, etc.

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China and has a history of more than 2,000 years.

There are many origins and legends of the Dragon Boat Festival. Here are only the following four: Originated from commemorating Qu Yuan. According to the "Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng" in "Historical Records", Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period.

He advocated the promotion of talents and empowerment, enriched the country and strengthened the military, and advocated uniting Qi to resist Qin. However, he was strongly opposed by the nobleman Zilan and others. Qu Yuan was dismissed from his post, expelled from the capital, and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang rivers.

In exile, he wrote immortal poems such as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which were concerned about the country and the people. They were unique in style and had far-reaching influence (therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Poet's Day).

In 278 B.C., the Qin Army conquered the capital of Chu.

Seeing his motherland being invaded, Qu Yuan was heartbroken, but he still could not bear to abandon his motherland. On May 5, after writing his final work "Huaisha", he bouldered into the Miluo River and died, risking his own life.

Composed a magnificent patriotic movement.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu State were extremely sad and flocked to the Miluo River to pay their respects to Qu Yuan.

The fishermen rowed their boats and fished for his true body back and forth on the river.

A fisherman took out the rice balls, eggs and other food prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river "plop, plop", saying that when the fish, lobsters and crabs were full, they would not bite Dr. Qu's body.

People followed suit after seeing it.

An old doctor took a jar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying it was to stun dragons and water animals so as not to harm Doctor Qu.

Later, for fear that the rice balls would be eaten by dragons, people came up with the idea of ??wrapping the rice with neem leaves and wrapping it with colorful silk, which developed into rice dumplings.

Since then, on the fifth day of May every year, there has been the custom of dragon boat racing, eating rice dumplings, and drinking realgar wine to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which originated from commemorating Wu Zixu, is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC).

Wu Zixu was a member of the Chu State, and his father and brother were both killed by the King of Chu. Later, Zixu abandoned the dark side and turned to the bright side, and rushed to the State of Wu to help Wu attack Chu. After five battles, he entered Yingcheng, the capital of Chu.

At that time, King Ping of Chu was dead, so Zixu dug up the grave and whipped the corpse three hundred times to avenge the death of his father and brother.

After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fucha succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won every battle. The country of Yue was defeated. King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fucha agreed to it.

Zixu suggested that the Yue Kingdom should be completely wiped out, but Fu Chai refused to listen, and the Wu State slaughtered him. He was bribed by the Yue Kingdom and framed Zixu with slanderous words. Fu Chai believed it and gave Zixu a sword, and Zixu died with it.

Zixu was a loyal man and regarded death as home. Before he died, he said to his neighbors: "After I die, dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to watch the Yue army enter the city and destroy Wu." Then he committed suicide and died.

After hearing this, he was furious and ordered Zixu's body to be packed in leather and thrown into the river on May 5th. Therefore, it is said that the Dragon Boat Festival is also a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.

Originating from the memory of the filial daughter Cao E. The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the filial daughter Cao E who saved her father and threw herself into the river in the Eastern Han Dynasty (23-220 AD).

Cao E was a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her father drowned in the river and her body was not seen for several days. At that time, her filial daughter Cao E was only fourteen years old and cried along the river day and night.

Seventeen days later, he also threw himself into the river on May 5th. Five days later, he took out his father's body.

This was passed down as a myth, and then passed down to the county governor, who ordered Du Shang to erect a monument for it and his disciple Handan Chun to write a memorial in praise of it.

The tomb of the filial daughter Cao E is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province today. It is later said that the stele of Cao E was written by King Yi of the Jin Dynasty.

In order to commemorate Cao E's filial piety, later generations built the Cao E temple where Cao E threw herself into the river. The village and town where she lived was renamed Cao E town, and the place where Cao E died for her father was named Cao E river.

Originating from the ancient Yue national totem sacrifice, a large number of unearthed cultural relics and archaeological research in modern times have confirmed that in the vast areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, during the Neolithic Age, there was a cultural relic characterized by geometrically printed pottery.

Experts infer that the tribe that remains is a tribe that worships the dragon totem - known as the Baiyue tribe in history.

The patterns on the unearthed pottery and historical legends indicate that they had the custom of breaking their hair and getting tattoos, lived in water towns, and compared themselves to being descendants of dragons.

The tools they produce include a large number of stone tools, as well as small bronze tools such as shovels and chisels.

Among the pots and jars used as daily necessities, the printed pottery tripods for cooking food are unique to them and are one of the symbols of their ethnic group.

Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was a festival created by them to worship their ancestors.