What are the origins and customs of Dragon Boat Festival?

Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival that has been circulated in China for thousands of years. Every Dragon Boat Festival, everyone eats zongzi and races the dragon boat. But do you know the origin and customs of the Dragon Boat Festival? Come and have a look with me!

? 1, from the memory of Qu Yuan?

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.

? 2. Originated in memory of Wu Zixu?

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, commemorates Wu Zixu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Wu Ju, the ancestor of Wu Zixu, was famous for his honest advice, so his descendants were also famous in Chu. Wu Zixu's family was persecuted in Chu and went to Wu. Reused by He Lv, the king of Wu, he defeated Chu, moved to Qi and Jin in the north, served the Yue people in the south, and worshipped Xiang Guogong.

After Fu Cha, the king of Wu, succeeded to the throne, Wu Zixu thought that Yue should be wiped out in one fell swoop, but Fu Cha was subdued by Ai Bo and refused to listen to the idea of "uniting together to resist Yue". In 484, he gave Wu Zixu a sword and committed suicide. Zi Xu committed suicide in anger, leaving his last words, asking his family to gouge out his eyes after his death and hang them on the east gate, watching the Vietnamese army destroy Wu.

Fu Cha, the prince of Wu, was furious and abandoned Wu Zixu's body in Qiantang River. Later, the State of Wu was destroyed by Gou Jian, the King of Yue, and Fu Cha was ashamed to meet Wu Zixu in the underworld. He covered his eyes with a white cloth before he raised his sword to commit suicide.

Because Wu Zixu's body sank into Qiantang River earlier than Qu Yuan, some documents think that the custom of China Dragon Boat Festival is related to Wu Zixu, but not to Qu Yuan.

? 3. In memory of the filial daughter Cao E?

The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Cao E, the filial daughter of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who saved her drowning father.

Cao E (130-143), a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was greeted by his father Cao Xu on May 5 (Han Danchun wrote Cao E Monument: "On May 5, I will welcome Wu Jun at any time." "Wu Jun" means "Wu Zixu") drowned in Shunjiang River, and the body disappeared for several days. At that time, Cao E, the filial daughter, was only fourteen years old, crying day and night by the river.

17 days later, he also threw himself into the river on May 22nd. Five days later, Cao E's body surfaced with his father's body in his arms. This was passed down as a myth, and then to the governor of the county government, who made it a monument for disciple Han Danchun to make a eulogy.

Later, the village where he lived was renamed Cao E, and the river that mourned his father was Cao E River, and a temple was built to comfort his filial piety.

There is also a legend that Cao E threw himself into the river on May 5, and did not investigate the drowning time of his father.

? Dragon boat race?

Dragon boat, as its name implies, is a boat shaped like a dragon. The bow of this ship is like a high faucet, and the side and abdomen of the ship are painted with different colors. Dragons come in different sizes and paddles, including six pairs, twelve pairs, seventeen pairs and fifty-two pairs. If you enter in the same way, then the size of the dragon boat must be the same. If it is a new ship, a ceremony must be held.

Dragon boat race is the main custom of Dragon Boat Festival. According to legend, it originated in ancient times. Because Chu people could not bear to be separated from the sage Qu Yuan, they died in the river, and many people rowed to catch up and save. They rushed to catch up until Dongting Lake disappeared. After that, I will row a dragon boat on May 5th every year to commemorate it. People use dragon boats to disperse the fish in the river so as not to eat Qu Yuan's body. The habit of competition prevailed in wuyue and Chu.

? Eat brown?

Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is another traditional custom of China people. Zongzi, also known as "corn millet" and "tube zongzi". It has a long history and various patterns. On the morning of Dragon Boat Festival, every family eats zongzi to commemorate Qu Yuan. Zongzi is usually wrapped the day before, cooked at night and eaten in the morning.

Zongzi originated in 340 AD. Qu Yuan knew that the country was going to die after failing to persuade Chu for many times. He didn't want to live in the world, hoping to wake the king of Chu with his own death, so he resolutely threw himself into the river. Knowing his good intentions, people threw rice into the river, hoping that the fish and shrimp in the river would not destroy Qu Yuan's body again, so the custom of eating zongzi later came into being. Nowadays, sending jiaozi and jiaozi has become a way to contact relatives and friends in today's society.

? Wearing a sachet?

In many places in China, several sachets are made for children to hang on during the Dragon Boat Festival, which is called "holding the afternoon". Children wearing sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival not only have the intention to ward off evil spirits and drive away epidemics, but also have the wind of decorating 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.

? Hang ai?

There is a folk proverb that says, "Willows are inserted in Qingming Festival and Ai is inserted in Dragon Boat Festival". On the Dragon Boat Festival, people regard inserting wormwood and calamus as one of the important contents. Every household should sweep the courtyard, put calamus and moxa sticks in the eyebrows of the door and hang them in the main room. Acorus calamus, Folium Artemisiae Argyi, Liu Hua, Garlic and Dragon Boat Flower are made into human or tiger shapes, which are called Ai Ren and Ai Hu. It is made into garlands and decorations, beautiful and fragrant, and women compete to wear it to ward off evil spirits. Dragon Boat Festival is also a "health festival" handed down from ancient times. On this day, people sweep the courtyard, hang mugwort leaves, hang calamus, sprinkle realgar wine, drink realgar wine, stir up turbidity, remove rot, sterilize and prevent diseases.

? Hanging purse and colorful silk thread?

It is an important custom to tie colored ropes for children during the Dragon Boat Festival, which has a beautiful meaning of praying for Najib. The predecessor of Changmingsuo is "Changminglu", also known as "Changminglu". Its significance lies in locking children's lives and avoiding the invasion of diseases and epidemics. The ancients believed that once a child was locked, he could grow up safely without disaster. Longevity lock is more of a blessing from elders to younger generations.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, every household hangs colored silk ropes on the lintel to ward off evil spirits. Therefore, traditionally, five-color silk is woven into a rope with a silver lock and wrapped around the child's arm to pray for evil spirits, illness and longevity!

This five-color rope is also exquisite, so it must be tied before the sun comes out, otherwise it will be useless, and the five-color rope can't be broken or discarded at will, so it can only be placed in the drain of its own courtyard wall and washed away with the rain when it rains heavily during the Dragon Boat Festival.

There are more than twenty names for the Dragon Boat Festival, such as Dragon Boat Festival, Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival, Dangwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Long Festival, Pujie Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Magnolia Festival, Quyuan Festival, Noon Festival, Daughter's Day, Dila Festival, Poet's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Noon Festival, Lantern Festival and Five Eggs Festival.