Lesson 30 The origin of Dragon Boat Festival and its polyphonic features.

Mr. Wen Yiduo's research in the Dragon Boat Festival Examination, Dragon Boat Festival History Education and other papers shows that the ancient Baiyue people used dragons as totems in order to show their status as "dragon sons" and consolidate their protected rights. The two main activities of the Dragon Boat Festival, eating zongzi and running, are all related to dragons. Zongzi are thrown into rivers and waters to offer sacrifices to the dragon gods, while dragon boats are used for competitions. [8] They not only have the custom of "constantly tattooing" to look like a dragon, but also hold a grand totem festival on May 5th every year. One of the activities is to paint a dragon-shaped canoe with drums, run races on the water, draw pictures and entertain yourself. This is the origin of the custom of dragon boat racing.

The development of ancient research and a large number of unearthed cultural relics confirm that Mr. Wen Yiduo's textual research is scientific. Like the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin in China is the birthplace of ancient culture in China. According to the combination of excavated original cultural relics and historical legends, there once lived a dragon totem ethnic group south of the Yangtze River in China, that is, the ancient Baiyue ethnic group. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still more than 100 Vietnamese people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was a festival for their ancestors.

The custom of dragon boat race originated in the south, and the fifth day of the fifth lunar month was regarded as "bad month and bad day" from the north, and it was infused with the seasonal fashion of "getting rid of diseases and epidemic prevention" in summer, accompanied by a meeting to commemorate Qu Yuan's suicide by jumping into the river, which eventually formed the traditional custom of Dragon Boat Festival. The formation of the Dragon Boat Festival custom can be said to be the product of the integration of North and South customs, which has injected new content with the development of history.