Dragon boat festival custom

Dragon Boat Festival is one of the four traditional festivals in China. There are different customs because of different regions and different folk customs. Let's talk about the custom of Dragon Boat Festival.

1. Eat the ruling cake

Wudu cake is a special food of Dragon Boat Festival, which is decorated with five poisonous insects (snake, centipede, scorpion, spider and toad). The ruling cake is actually a rose cake, but the image of "ruling" is covered on the cake. Because every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, poisons multiply actively, and the ancients would eat "five poison cakes" to pray for the elimination of illness and physical fitness.

Although this kind of cake is just an ordinary cake with a pattern of five poisons or an image of five poisons printed on it, it also well reflects people's desire to "eat" these poisonous insects and stop them from poisoning the world.

Step 2: Barbecue the dragon boat.

Dragon boat rowing is a multi-person collective rowing competition, an important activity of the Dragon Boat Festival, a ceremony of ancient dragon totem and a heritage. It is an important activity of the Dragon Boat Festival, and it is still very popular in the southern coastal areas of China. After it was spread abroad, it was deeply loved by people all over the world and formed an international competition. . Boasting dragon boat is a form of dragon worship in folk belief, that is, using the power of dragon to pray for good luck and ward off evil spirits.

Step 3 hang wormwood and calamus

During the Dragon Boat Festival, people will hang wormwood or calamus in front of the courtyard and under the eaves, because they are both Chinese herbal medicines. Mosquitoes are afraid of this smell and can repel mosquitoes. Because the leaves of Acorus calamus are shaped like swords, the ancients called them "water swords", saying that they can "cut all evils". People will carve calamus into figures such as "little people" and "small gourds" and hang them around children's necks for good luck. It will also be hung on the lintel to exorcise evil spirits.

Hang a gourd

During the Dragon Boat Festival, many places have the custom of hanging gourds. As the old saying goes, "Hang a gourd on the Dragon Boat Festival, and there will be a blessing in peace", because the homonym of gourd is "blessing", which represents both blessing and blessing, and has a very good meaning. Moreover, the gourd is a Taoist instrument. The ancients thought that gourd could contain unlucky gas, and it was easy to get in but difficult to get out. May is an "evil month" or a "poisonous month", so on the Dragon Boat Festival, people use gourds to eliminate diseases and evil spirits. Hanging gourds or wearing them at home during the Dragon Boat Festival can ward off evil spirits, drive away plagues and bring good luck.

Wear a pouch

Many areas in China have the custom of wearing sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival. Every Dragon Boat Festival, the elders at home will make some small sachets for their children to hang on. They call this custom "holding noon". After children wear sachets, they not only have the intention to ward off evil spirits and drive away epidemics, but also have the wind that adorns their heads. The sachet contains cinnabar, realgar and fragrant medicine, wrapped in silk cloth, and the fragrance is overflowing, and then tied into a rope with five-color silk thread to make a string of different shapes, exquisite and eye-catching

There are many customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, with various forms and rich contents. Due to different regional cultures, the content or details of customs vary from place to place in China. But people celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival with the same original intention, hoping that they and their families will be safe and healthy.