Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - What are the traditional Chinese festivals? Their origin, significance, and related legends and stories
What are the traditional Chinese festivals? Their origin, significance, and related legends and stories
The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the four major festivals of the year. May is a poisonous month, the fifth day is a poisonous day, and the noon of the fifth day is a poisonous time, which is the end of the three poisons. The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the "end of May". May is the beginning of the entire hot days, five poisonous snakes begin to active, ghosts and demons will be rampant, these will give people, especially to the carefree and defenseless children to bring disaster, must be in the May end of the day to focus on the children to eliminate disasters and prevent poison. There is also a saying that it is in honor of the founder of mankind, Nuwa, "Nuwa" and "Wa" homophonic, therefore, people also said the May Dragon Boat Festival is "Children's Day" or The festival is also known as the "Dolls' Festival".
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional habit of the Chinese people for more than two thousand years, due to the vast area, many ethnic groups, part of Mongolia, Hui, Tibet, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Buyei, Korea, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, She, Lahu, water, Naxi, Daur, Mulao, Qiang, Gelao, Sibe, Pumi, Ewenke, Yugu, Oroqen and other ethnic minorities have also had this festival, coupled with the story of the legends The festival not only has many different names, but also has different customs in different places. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in the hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat race, than the martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings, and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat races, have been newly developed, breaking through time and geographical boundaries to become international sporting events.
On November 24, 2005, Korea applied for the "Dragon Boat Festival" to be officially recognized by UNESCO as an "oral and intangible cultural heritage of humanity". This is a profound lesson for the Chinese in the protection of their cultural heritage.
The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, one of the oldest traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, heavy five festival, May Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Daughter Festival, Tianzhong Festival, the ground wax, Poet's Day, Dragon Day, Doll Festival and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, the people around the custom of the festival is still the same more than different.
Over the Dragon Boat Festival, is the traditional habits of the Chinese people for more than two thousand years, due to the vast area, many ethnic groups, coupled with many stories and legends, so not only produced a number of different names of the festival, but also has different customs. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in a hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat racing, martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, zongzi and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have gradually disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, have been newly developed, breaking through time and geographical boundaries and becoming international sporting events.
On the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are many ways of saying, such as: to commemorate Qu Yuan said; to commemorate the Wu Zixu said; to commemorate the Cao E said; the summer solstice festival in the third generation said; the evil month of the day to drive away to avoid said, Wu Yue national totem festival said, to commemorate the Nuwa said, and so on. Each of the above said, each of its own source. According to scholars Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Dragon Boat Festival of the history of education" listed in more than a hundred ancient records and expert archaeological evidence, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the ancient Chinese southern Wu Yue national totem festival, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over the centuries, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely and y rooted in people's hearts, so people "cherish and mourn them, and the world discusses their words in order to pass them on to each other", therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's words has the widest and deepest impact, and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people put the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race and eat rice dumplings, etc., are associated with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.
To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and solemn festival among the Chinese people. The Dragon Boat Festival is now a national holiday.
Legend of Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival, which began in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods in China, and has a history of more than 2,000 years. There are many origins and legends of the Dragon Boat Festival, only the following four are introduced here:
The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, commonly known as the "Dragon Boat Festival". Duan is the "beginning", "first" meaning. The first five days can be called the end of the five. Lunar calendar to the Earth's branches of the month, the first month of building c, February for the d, in turn to May for the noon, so that May for the month of noon, "five" and "noon" through, "five" and for the number of yang, so the Dragon Boat Festival also known as Duanwu is also known as the fifth, heavy five, Duanyang, in the day, etc.. From the historical point of view, "Dragon Boat Festival" two words were first seen in the Jin Zhou Zhi "land and customs": "mid-summer Dragon Boat Festival, cooking rasping corn". Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of the Han Chinese people in China. The essential activities of this day gradually evolved into: eating zongzi, dragon boat racing, hanging calamus, moxa, fumigation Cangzhu, Angelica dahurica, drink xionghuang wine. It is said that eating rice dumplings and dragon boat racing, is to commemorate the Qu Yuan, so after the liberation of the Dragon Boat Festival was named "Poet's Day" to commemorate the Qu Yuan. As for hanging calamus, moxa leaves, fumigate Cangzhu, Angelica dahurica, drink Xionghuang wine, it is said to be in order to suppress the evil spirits. Although the Dragon Boat Festival every year, but about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, but not very clear, summarized, roughly the following said.
One, to honor Qu Yuan said. This is the earliest from the Southern Liang Dynasty Wu Jun "continued Qi Harmony" and the Northern Zhou Zong hours "Jing Chu chronicle" records. It is said that Qu Yuan on the fifth day of May threw himself into the Miluo River, after his death for the dragon trapped, the world mourned, every day to throw five-color silk dumplings in the water to drive the dragon. Another rumor, Qu Yuan cast Miluo River, the local people heard immediately rowing boats to rescue, a thousand straight line to the Dongting Lake, the end of Qu Yuan's body. At that time, coinciding with the rainy day, the boats on the lake together gathered at the shore by the pavilion. When people learned that is to salvage the wise minister Qu Daifu, once again braved the rain, scrambling to paddle into the vast Dongting Lake. In order to send their condolences, people swung their boats on top of the river, and only thereafter gradually developed into dragon boat races. 'It seems that the Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi, dragon boat races and commemorate Qu Yuan related to the Tang Dynasty Wenxiu 'Dragon Boat Festival' poem as evidence: "Festival points Dragon Boat Festival since who said, the rumors of the ages for Qu Yuan. I can laugh at the empty Chu River, can not be washed straight minister injustice."
Secondly, it is said to welcome the god of Tao. This is from the Eastern Han Dynasty "Cao E Stele". In the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Zixu, a loyal minister of Wu, died of injustice, turned into the Tao God, the world mourned and sacrificed, so there is the Dragon Boat Festival.
Three, the Dragon Festival said. This argument comes from Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival", and "Dragon Boat Festival's historical education". He believes that the fifth day of May is the ancient Wuyue region "dragon" of the tribe held a totem sacrifice day. The main reasons are; (a) the two most important activities of the Dragon Boat Festival eat zongzi and race, are related to the dragon. Zongzi into the water is often stolen by the mosquito dragon, while the race is used in the dragon boat. (B) the race and the ancient wu yue local relationship is particularly deep, and wu yue people also have broken hair tattoo "to like the dragon" custom. (C) in ancient times on the fifth day of May, there are "colorful silk tie arm" folk custom, which should be "like the Dragon" tattoo custom remains.
Four, said the evil day. In the pre-Qin era, it is generally believed that May is a poisonous month, the fifth is a bad day. Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals in the chapter of "Zhong Xia Ji" provides that people in May to abstain from sex, fasting. In the Xia Xiaozheng, it is written, "This day is for storing medicines in order to remit the poisonous qi." Dadailei" in the record, "the fifth day of the fifth month of the animal orchids for the bath" to bathe to drive away evil spirits that the fifth day of the death of the legend is also a lot of. The Historical Records of the Grand Historian (史记-孟尝君列传) recorded that the famous Grand Historian Meng Chang Jun (孟尝君) was born on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. His father asked his mother not to give birth to him, believing that "the son of the month of May, longer than the household Qi, will be unfavorable to his parents." According to an anonymous article in the book "Customs", "it is said that if a child is born on the fifth day of the fifth month, the male will harm his father and the female will harm her mother". Wang Chong, author of "Lun Heng", also recorded: "taboo to lift the first month, May son; to the first month, May son to kill the father and mother, shall not be lifted also." In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the great general Wang Zhenxiao was born on the fifth day of the fifth month, so his grandfather named him "Zhenxiao". Song Huizong Zhao Ji was born on the fifth day of the fifth month, from childhood foster outside the palace. It can be seen that the ancient May 5 as a bad day, is a common phenomenon. Can be seen from the pre-Qin later, this day are unlucky day. In this way, in this day plug calamus, mugwort to drive away ghosts, lavender, dahurica and drink andrographis to avoid the epidemic, is a logical thing.
Fifth, the summer solstice said. This view of Liu Deqian in the "" Dragon Boat "" and "" Chinese traditional festivals "", put forward three main reasons: (a) the authoritative work of years and times "" Jing Chu years and times "" did not mention the May 5 to eat zongzi holiday customs, but to eat zongzi written in the summer solstice festival. As for Jingdu, the Sui dynasty Du Daiqing made the "jade candle BaoDian" it is classified as a summer solstice recreational activities, it is not necessarily for the salvage of the great poet Qu Yuan cast the river. (b) Some elements of the Dragon Boat Festival customs, such as "stepping on a hundred grasses", "fighting a hundred grasses", "picking miscellaneous medicines", etc., actually have nothing to do with Qu Yuan. (C) years and years of winds and customs Hua Ji Li" on the Dragon Boat Festival, the first explanation is: "the day leaf is the sun, that is, the Dragon Boat Festival is the middle of the summer, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the day in the festival. This is the earliest origin of the Dragon Boat Festival when the summer solstice. Tui Dang out, and to commemorate the Qu Yuan said the most extensive impact. Because of Qu Yuan's personality and art, people are also willing to attribute this anniversary to him.
Sixth, in honor of Nuwa said. In Gansu Qingyang area over has been retained a strong Dragon Boat Festival customs. This day is a festival for women to juggle threads and dress up dolls, so it is said to be the Festival of Dolls or Nuwa. The doll carries an embroidered big green wow on its back, or a disk of snakes on its back. Then with the five poisons, head wearing a tiger hat, foot on the tiger head shoes, the vitals on the embellishment of the double tiger, chest wearing a load of herbs of the bag, a variety of styles (these later collectively referred to as the Qingyang incense packets). Wrists, ankles tied to the five-color thread rolled into the flower flower rope, are made from the hands of women. This festival heritage originated in when what generation, can not also have no information to prove, just a kind of intangible cultural heredity (Qingyang incense packet in 02 years was listed as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage). If these folk oral language and dolls to wear and history of some of the east scale and west claw records corroborate, it is not difficult to find it with the Chinese humanities a lineage of vein relationship. The word "娃" and "娲" have the same sound, and "女娃" also has the same sound as "女娲", and the Dragon Boat Festival, as the folk saying goes, is the Festival of the Dolls, and the Festival of the Nuwa is the Festival of the Nuwa. The Dragon Boat Festival is known as the Doll Festival, and the Nuwa Festival is also known as the Nuwa Festival. From this, it is assumed that the Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place in Qingyang, the birthplace of China, is a way of transmitting mother's love to the local people as a way of reminiscing about and commemorating the childhood years of mankind, in honor of Nuwa. The potential of motherly love and childish relationship to the generation to generation produce a mysterious call, accumulated into a folk consciousness. Its origins are very ancient, far more ancient than the current era of the test. This is the source of the Dragon Boat Festival, which laid the foundation for the formation of China's great cultural system of "five characters at the beginning", and became the framework for the thinking of Chinese descendants on the origin of nature.
[Originated from commemorating Qu Yuan〗
According to the Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》), Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Warring States period. He advocated to raise the virtuous and authorized, to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and strongly advocated to unite Qi and fight against Qin, which was strongly opposed by the aristocrat Zilan and other people, and Qu Yuan was gluttonously dismissed from his post, driven out of the capital city, and was exiled to the Yuan and Xiang basins. During his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which are unique and far-reaching (thus, the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Poets' Festival). In 278 B.C., the Qin army attacked the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland being invaded, and his heart was cut to pieces, but he could not bear to give up his motherland, and on the 5th of May, after writing his final poem "Huai Sha", he threw himself into Miluo River and died, composing a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.
Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were in mourning and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. Fishermen rowed up their boats and salvaged his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out for Qu Yuan prepared rice balls, eggs and other food, "flop, flop" thrown into the river, said that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat enough, will not go to bite the body of Dr. Qu. People see have followed suit. An old physician to bring a altar of yellow wine poured into the river, said to be drug stunned dragon water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, for fear of rice balls for the dragon to eat, people came up with a neem leaf wrapped rice, wrapped in colorful silk, the development of brown.
After that, on the fifth day of the fifth month of every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine custom; in order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
[Originated from commemorating Wu Zixu〗
The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, had his father and brother killed by the king of Chu. Later, Wu Zixu abandoned his darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu conquer Chu, and entered Ying City, the capital of Chu, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu had already died, and Zixu dug up his grave and whipped his body 300 times to avenge the killing of his father and brother. After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won a hundred battles, and the Yue kingdom was greatly defeated, and King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, which Fu Chai agreed to. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely destroyed, but Fu-chai refused to listen to him, and Wu's Dazai, who had been bribed by the state of Yue, framed Zixu with slanderous rumors, and Fu-chai believed him and gave Zixu a sword, which he used to kill himself. Zixu was a loyal man, and he was very happy to die. Before he died, he told his neighbors, "After I die, I will dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to see the Yue army enter the city to destroy Wu", and then he killed himself. Fu Chai was furious at the news, and he ordered to take Zixu's body and put it into a leather bag to throw it into a big river on the fifth day of the fifth month, so it is said that Duanwu Festival is a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.
〖Originally Commemorating the Filial Daughter Cao E〗
The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the filial daughter Cao E, who saved her father from being thrown into the river in the Eastern Han Dynasty (23--220 A.D.). Cao E is the Eastern Han Dynasty Shangyu people, his father drowned in the river, a few days to see the body, the filial daughter of Cao E was only fourteen years old, day and night along the river crying. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. The story was passed down as a myth, and the story was passed down to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument for it, and had his disciple Handan Chun write a eulogy in praise of it.
The tomb of Cao E, a filial daughter, is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the monument to Cao E is said to have been written by Wang Yi of the Jin Dynasty. To commemorate Cao E's filial piety, a Cao E Temple was built at the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, the village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E was martyred was named Cao E River.
〖Originally from the ancient Vietnamese national totem sacrifices〗
Many recent excavations and archaeological studies have confirmed that: the vast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric printed ceramic as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The remains of the clan, according to experts deduced that it is a tribe that worships the totem of the dragon ---- historically known as the Baiyue tribe. Unearthed pottery on the decoration and historical legends show that they have the custom of breaking hair tattoos, living in the water countryside, self-comparison is the descendants of the dragon. Their production tools, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. As a living thing in the altar pots and jars, cooking food printed pots are unique to them, is one of the symbols of their ethnic groups. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was the festival they created for ancestor worship. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have been integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, making the Dragon Boat Festival a festival for the entire Chinese nation.
[May 5 is a bad month and a bad day〗
Yuan Xuejun, president of the Hebei Folk Culture Association, believes that the concept of "Dragon Boat Festival" existed before Qu Yuan.
Yuan Xuejun said, the Chinese people's mode of thinking has always had the concept of overlapping numbers, such as the first month of the first (the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar) of the Spring Festival, February 2 Dragon Head Festival, March 3 is said to be the Queen Mother's Peach Fair, in addition to the July 7 Tanabata Festival, the 9th of September Festival, etc., these festivals have their own connotations, and they are closely linked to China's thousands of years of agricultural civilization. The 5th of May is treated as a holiday and these festivals are formed sooner or later, in the 7,000 to 8,000 years ago has been formed.
"In Chinese historical tradition, May 5 is an evil day in an evil month, according to the "I Ching" and other canonical records, the evil from the five, May 5 is precisely the Yang qi running to the end of the end point of the Duan Yang time, this kind of day, malignant plague disease and epidemic, so this day, people will be inserted into the moxa leaves, hanging calamus, drink xionghuang wine, with scented pouches and so on, in order to drive away the evil and health care and fitness. " Yuan Xuejun said Qu Yuan threw himself into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, may intend to be in the Dragon Boat Festival, to express loyalty to the country and the nation.
Yuan Xuejun believes that the Dragon Boat Festival is now handed down to eat rice dumplings, dragon boat races, is more than 2,000 years ago after Qu Yuan jumped into the river, the descendants in the salvage of Qu Yuan's remains gradually evolved way to commemorate. People spread rice in the river is to let the fish eat enough to avoid eating the remains of Qu Yuan, salvage Qu Yuan to use the boat, the boat more naturally formed competition, so the race gradually unfolded, as for the dragon boat, it is a little later.
Duanwu Festival customs
China's folk over the Dragon Boat Festival is more grand, the celebration of the activities are also very rich, from dawn in the morning, and lasted until noon before the end. The more common activities are the following forms:
- Previous article:Five must-see attractions in Xingyi
- Next article:What are the characteristics of the structure of quadrangles?
- Related articles
- Who has the technical methods and steps of ancient sword casting?
- The time of the Beijing suburban big market
- How to educate secondary students with Chinese traditional culture
- Vine cultivation
- Seeking the true case format of clothing sales
- A Tribute to the Post-70s: A Bitter-Sweet Generation
- What are the national customs in Wan Fenglin?
- The Marriage Customs of Huian's Daughter
- Weaving method of straw stool
- What is the meaning of design?