What are the customs of how to celebrate the Northern Dragon Boat Festival?

Introduction: On the occasion of the annual Dragon Boat Festival, the discussion about salty and sweet zongzi in the north and south of China always causes many heated discussions. Of course, there is such a controversy because a significant difference in food culture between the north and the south is "sweet in the south and salty in the north", but do you know what other customs there are in the northern Dragon Boat Festival? Let's take a look at how the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated in the north.

How to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in the north?

1, Buliu

In ancient times, every Dragon Boat Festival in Zhao County, Hebei Province, local officials would hold a banquet in the south of the city, inviting literati in the city to feast and compose poems, which was called "stepping on the willow". The custom of chanting poems on the Dragon Boat Festival still exists today, but it lacks the elegance of going out to feast and write poems.

Step 2 wear copper coins with five poisons

The northern Dragon Boat Festival has the custom of wearing Zhong Kui copper coins to ward off evil spirits, and now it is gradually replaced by the custom of children wearing five poison corsets. Some places are popular with aunts, and some places are popular with grandmothers or grandmothers. Wudu has a red belly pocket embroidered with five poisons: centipede, scorpion, toad, mouse and snake. It is said that it can drive away poison and evil spirits. Five-colored silk thread is also a way for people to ward off evil spirits during the Dragon Boat Festival. Red, yellow, blue and green silk threads are intertwined and worn on wrists and ankles, which is beautiful and exquisite.

3. Run a horse and shoot a willow

On the morning of Dragon Boat Festival, people will shoot willows and release horses. First, cut a section of green skin from the middle and upper part of the willow trunk to make it white as a bull's eye. Then the contestants galloped in turn and shot at the white place with bows. After shooting down Necole Liu, whoever can catch the broken willow will be the winner. This festival competition didn't become a habit until the late Qing Dynasty.

What to eat at Dragon Boat Festival in northern China?

Noodles fan

In Minqin County, Gansu Province, vermicelli is steamed during the Dragon Boat Festival. The noodle fan is steamed with hair noodles, which is fan-shaped and has five layers. Each layer is sprinkled with ground cooked peppers, and the surface is kneaded into various patterns and dyed, which is very beautiful. This diet custom is said to have evolved from the custom of making, selling and sending fans on the Dragon Boat Festival.

Eat garlic and eggs

Every Dragon Boat Festival, housewives in rural areas of Henan, Zhejiang and other provinces get up early and make garlic and eggs for breakfast. In some places, put some mugwort leaves when cooking garlic and eggs. Eating garlic, eggs and fried buns for breakfast is said to avoid the "five poisons" and is good for health.

Eat eels

During the Dragon Boat Festival in Jianghan Plain, China, we will eat Monopterus albus. Monopterus albus is also known as eel and long fish. Monopterus albus in Dragon Boat Festival is tender and delicious, rich in nutrition, not only delicious, but also nourishing. Therefore, there is a folk saying that "Monopterus albus participates in the Dragon Boat Festival".

Eat cake

Dragon Boat Festival is a grand festival for Korean people in Yanbian, Jilin Province. The most representative food on this day is sweet cake. Caking is to put mugwort and glutinous rice in a big wooden trough carved from a single wood and beat it with a long-handled wooden pestle. This kind of food has national characteristics and can add festive atmosphere.

Eat five poisonous cakes

Around the Dragon Boat Festival, many food stores will sell "Five Poison Cakes", that is, cakes decorated with five poisonous insect patterns. Wudu cake is actually a rose cake, but the images of scorpions, toads, spiders, centipedes and snakes are printed on the outermost layer of the cake. Udon cake is a special seasonal food in the northern Dragon Boat Festival. Early summer is the time when poison is active, so the ancients would eat Udon cakes in the hope of eliminating diseases and keeping fit.

Food eaten in the southern Dragon Boat Festival.

Fujian 1

The family dinner of Fuzhou Dragon Boat Festival must be at noon, and there must be zongzi, realgar wine, lotus leaf steamed stuffed bun, rice flour meat and so on. After the family dinner, the children put on new clothes, red Chinese-style chest covering, fragrant bags with unique shapes and bright colors, such as zongzi and lanterns, woven with various silk threads, and washed chrysanthemum soup. Some children even put a piece of realgar smoked fat between their nose and mouth, and then adults took them to the river to watch the dragon boat race.

In Jinjiang, Fujian, every household has to eat "fried piles" during the Dragon Boat Festival. The so-called fried pile is made of flour, rice flour or sweet potato powder into a thick paste and fried into a large piece in an oil pan. According to legend, in ancient times, it was the rainy season in southern Fujian before the Dragon Boat Festival, with continuous rain. People say that God has pierced a hole to "mend the sky". The rain stopped after eating fried piles on the Dragon Boat Festival. People say that the sky has been mended. This diet custom comes from this.

2. Chongqing

Chongqing is known as the "land of Bayu", and the so-called "Ba" is a snake. Ancient Chongqing people worshipped snakes and regarded them as totem worship. In the past, snakes were not allowed to eat, but since the 1980s, Chongqing people have chosen to cook and eat snake soup on the annual Dragon Boat Festival to protect themselves.

People in Chongqing eat snakes because of the influence of fertility culture. As a symbol of totem worship, women believe that there will be offspring after eating snakes, which is similar to the legend that Jiang Yuan, the old mother of Taishang, gave birth to Hou Ji by stepping on the footprints of giants. Some people think that after eating a snake, the ancestors will be with themselves when they enter the body. But snakes can't be killed indiscriminately, nor can they be cooked in their own homes. Usually, they cook a pot of snake soup on the threshing floor and share it with the whole village.

3. Guangxi

In southern Guangxi, such as Ningming, Chongzuo, Longzhou and other places, the Dragon Boat Festival should be wrapped in cool brown, which is called "grey water zongzi". Before making zongzi, cut off the branches and leaves of some trees, such as Phoebe bournei, and pile them in the flat ground when the sun is half dry, then put the ash in a bamboo container and filter it with clear water. Finally, soak the prepared glutinous rice in the filtered brown water. After soaking, glutinous rice will reveal a unique fragrance of plant ash in its original fragrance, and the wrapped glutinous rice balls are mostly yellowish or brownish yellow after being cooked.