What are the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival of the Hakka people?

The Dragon Boat Festival Customs of Hakka in Gannan The Hakka people who moved south to Gannan, when celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival, retained the traditional Dragon Boat Festival customs of the Central Plains, and also incorporated the habits of the local natives in Gannan, such as making rice with moxa, hanging bushels of bushels of moxa, and taking baths in herbs' broths, and so on, and thus formed their own distinctive Dragon Boat Festival customs.

Keywords: Gannan Hakka Dragon Boat Festival Customs

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. In the beginning, the fifth day of every month could be called "Dragon Boat Festival". For example, "Taiping Yuban" reads: "The fifth day of the Dragon Boat Festival in the middle of summer. End, the first also" ancient "five" and "Wu" generic (1), so called "Dragon Boat Festival". Gannan Hakka people call the Dragon Boat Festival for the May Festival, in accordance with Hakka practice, the girl out of the cabinet on this day to pick on the dumplings and other food, gifts, back to visit their parents.

On the first and fifteenth days of the lunar calendar, as well as on New Year's festivals, the Hakka people in Gannan go to worship the God of the Land, because "the God of the Land is the protector of the Hakka people", and the Dragon Boat Festival is no exception. On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, it is no exception. When offering to the God of the Land, they put on a pig's head, a chicken, a fish (all cooked), three bowls of rice, three pairs of chopsticks, three wines, and light incense and candles and kneel on the ground, praying to the God of the Land to bless the whole family with peace of mind and a good harvest, as well as other blessings (2). Nowadays, many Gannan Hakka have simplified this ceremony by lighting three sticks of incense in front of their homes to offer sacrifices. Or in the celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival table, add a few more pairs of chopsticks and chairs, to show that the ancestors in the same holiday with their own, in order to hope for the blessing of the ancestors, which fully reflects the Hakka people have a strong worship of the ancestors of the concept.

In addition, Gannan Hakka guests have other customs on the Dragon Boat Festival.

(a) Ai rice and dumplings

In the Dragon Boat Festival, the Hakka people have the custom of making Ai rice. On the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival, every family has to collect all kinds of herbs from the wild for food, and use them to make Ai rice. Commonly used herbs include mugwort, hemp leaves, chicken vine, white head of the dragon, wolfberry leaves, etc. The method of preparation is to combine the required herbs into a single batch of rice. Production method is the need for herbs washed, de-stemmed, boiled, mixed in the pre-soaked filtered dry glutinous rice (plus the appropriate amount of rice), pounded with a pestle and mortar into a rice ball, add brown sugar and mix well, made of blocks steamed that is, the reason why the annual Dragon Boat Festival during this dietary practice, because of the fifth month of the Lunar Calendar, the Hakka people call it the month of evil, the Hakka region in the traditional society is located in the mountainous areas of the south of the Lingnan, every time this period is the most miasma season, and is also the people's most prevalent. In the Hakka region, which is located in the mountainous area of the south of the mountain range, this is the season when miasma and plague are the most prevalent and when people are most prone to various diseases. The herbs used to make moxa rice almost all have the function of removing dampness and heat, eliminating all kinds of poisons, etc., and this is the season of producing these herbs, so the Hakka people formed this set of dietary customs according to their own production and living experience.

A Gannan proverb says: "Eat the dumplings in May, and the cold clothes come into the box", which means: after eating the dumplings in the Dragon Boat Festival, the cold clothes can be received in the box. Gannan region in this season from spring to summer, the weather will become hotter and hotter. And the Dragon Boat Festival is inseparable from zongzi. Zongzi, anciently known as "corn", zongzi stereotypes is the beginning of the north corn south glutinous, zongzi began to see in the north, after the weight of the historical characteristics of the south, is due to the northern population continues to migrate south, the center of gravity of the economy and culture gradually southward caused by. Zongzi culture originated from "praying for the New Year", the race began from "disaster avoidance", "dragon worship" as the pursuit of the attached meaning is slightly later. Zongzi is a delicacy in Chinese history, is the most typical art of Chinese history special type of food, is the richest cultural accumulation of food (4). Gannan Hakka people make zongzi by soaking wet zongzi leaves wrapped in soaked glutinous rice and become, steamed can be eaten. For those who are more sophisticated, they are filled with a variety of delicious fillings. Zongzi is a kind of rice cold food, not only has a unique color, aroma, taste, shape, but also has the role of heat and fire, is indeed a seasonal delicacy.

(B) Xionghuang wine

May 5 is at the turn of spring and summer, the Gannan region, the temperature is humid and changeable, a hundred bugs breeding, is the most susceptible to disease days, but also the most prevalent season of the plague, according to the "Jing Chu chronicles": "May is commonly referred to as the month of evil" (5), and the May 5, in particular. Originally, the ancients called May as the evil month, the day of the Dragon Boat Festival is considered to be the most inauspicious day in the month of May, some people in ancient times will even be born on this day as a child of disaster and abandonment. In fact, the reason why the ancients abhorred May, this is because after entering the May, the weather is hot, plague epidemic rapidly breeding mosquitoes and flies, as well as snakes, scorpions, centipedes, geckos, spiders and other "five poisons" began to sow harm among people. Therefore, the ancients will emit the flavor of pungent mugwort hanging in front of the door, to the room sprinkled with andrographis wine, in order to drive away mosquitoes and flies and poisonous insects.

Ancient people believe that andrographis wine has the role of avoiding or repelling disasters, expelling diseases and detoxification, such as "hold Parker", single service andrographis wine can make "poisonous insects do not add, beasts do not offend, the evil gas is not, all the demons and open up", but also "all diseases", also said that "calamus is good for people. It is also said that "calamus is good for hearing" (6). Out of Gannan Hakka's life needs, because of Hakka's wet and miasma, andrographis is the enemy of snakes, scorpions and poisonous insects, sprinkle and drink have the effect of preventing, so ancient Gannan Hakka in the Dragon Boat Festival, drink calamus andrographis wine to drive away diseases and preventing epidemics became one of the main customs.

Regarding the medicinal value of andrographis and calamus, Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty, "Compendium of Materia Medica", said: "calamus wine, treating thirty-six winds, twelve paralyzes, through the bloodstream, treating impotence of the bone, and long-serving ears and eyes smart." It also says: "Xionghuang wine is pungent, warm and poisonous, with the effect of detoxifying insects and snakes, drying dampness, killing insects and driving away phlegm." Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival Hakka region prevailed in the production of calamus andrographis wine, used to coat the forehead of children, sprinkled and drinking, to avoid poison.

Xionghuang, also known as "cockle stone", the main chemical component is arsenic sulfide (ASS), is the main raw material for the manufacture of arsenic, the ancients are also used to manufacture insecticides. According to "Compendium of Materia Medica", a small amount of andrographis can be taken to suppress epilepsy, diarrhea and internal toxicity, external application of bactericidal and analgesic effect, but taking too much will cause neurotoxicity, and even death. With the progress of science, medical knowledge has been popularized, people understand that Xionghuang wine has toxicity, and drinking it will cause toxic reactions. Therefore, in the Dragon Boat Festival, Gannan Hakka people are not drinking, but in some places in Gannan, people will still use moxa dipped in xionghuang wine to the ground sprinkled, used to sterilize and drive away insects.

(C) hanging bushels and ai

Proverb: "Qingming willow, Dragon Boat Festival plug Ai". According to the "Jing Chu chronicle", "pick Ai as a person, hanging on the portal, to avoid poisonous gas." (7) During the Dragon Boat Festival, the Hakka people in Gannan make the insertion of moxa and calamus as one of the important contents. Every family sweeps the courtyard and inserts calamus and moxa into the lintel of the door and hangs it in the hall to avoid evil spirits and diseases, drive away mosquitoes, flies, insects and ants and purify the air.

The Dragon Boat Festival door hanging kudzu, for the Hakka people unique custom. Gannan Hakka people also hang on the lintel of the kudzu as an exorcism, but with the kudzu will be attached to other places to tie the ghost of the "chain", "fairy rope" is different from the Hakka folklore, but it is associated with the end of the Tang Dynasty peasant revolt leader Huang Chao. According to legend: the end of the Tang Dynasty peasant revolt, Huang Chao rebel into the Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi areas. A woman carrying her nephew's son met Huang Chao on the road. Huang Chao saw her carrying an older child on her back and walking with a younger one, very strange, so he went up and asked her the reason. The woman, not knowing that the questioner was Huang Chao, replied: "I heard that Master Huang Chao had rebelled, and he came here at once, and the people were running away. This old man is my nephew, both parents are dead, really poor, I am afraid of being captured by Huang Chao, the bloodline is interrupted, so I carry it on my back. The younger one is my son, so I am holding him." Huang Chao praised him for his goodness, so he did not kill him, and warned the woman, "Sister-in-law, don't be afraid, I am Huang Chao, we don't kill the poor and good people. You go back quickly and hang the yellow kudzu vine on the door as a sign, so that you can avoid the disaster." So Huang Chao ordered his army not to kill people who hung kudzu on their doors. After the woman went home, she cut many kudzu vines and hung them at the intersection of the village pit, and the men and women of the village did not die. After that, many refugees saved their lives by hanging kudzu. That day happened to be the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, so every family would hang yellow kudzu vines on the lintel of their doors on that day, not only to praise that kind-hearted woman, but also to commemorate Huang Chao (8), who protected the poor. This is the origin of today's Hakka Dragon Boat Festival.

Writing talismans and sticking them on the door. On the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, every family writes a "noon time charm" with a ballpoint pen and pastes it on the door or wall. The so-called "noon time charm", refers to the charm written at noon. Yellow paper, draw a gossip or a god, under the book "Leling" two words, written "May 5 at noon book broken officials, rat ants, mosquitoes and all eliminate" a type of words. This custom, is the use of Taoism in the form of spells to avoid "five poisons", because the Taoist Zhang Tianshi is the Hakka Dragon Boat Festival worship of the gods (9). With the arrival of midsummer, a variety of pests have come out, so people use this as a way to drive away rodents, ants and mosquitoes.

Ai and calamus are mid-summer products, and have medicinal value. "Ai", also known as the family Ai, Artemisia absinthium. According to the "Jing Chu years": "tasted the fifth of May when the chicken did not sing picking Ai, see like a man, and take it." (10) Its stems and leaves contain volatile aromatic oil, which produces a peculiar aroma that can repel mosquitoes and flies, insects and ants and purify the air. In Chinese medicine, moxa is used as medicine, which has the functions of regulating qi and blood, warming the uterus, and dispelling cold and dampness, and moxa leaves are processed into "moxa velvet", which is an important herb for moxibustion to cure diseases. Acorus calamus is a perennial aquatic herb, its long and narrow leaves also contain volatile aroma, which is a drug to improve the spirit, strengthen the bones and eliminate stagnation, and kill insects and sterilize. It can be seen that the insertion of Ai and calamus is a certain role in disease prevention.

(D) Herbs burning soup bath

Dragon Boat Festival day, some places in the Hakka also wash the custom of herbal bath. Men, women, old and young people have to take a medicinal bath, and the Hakka people believe, "Wash your body with Ai Pu, and all diseases will be eliminated." (11) this day hundred grasses for medicine, wash medicinal herb water can remove moisture and drive away miasma in order to fitness. Before the sun rises on that day, the male host goes out early and picks dewy maple leaves, peach branches, honeysuckle vines, millipedes, cat's claw vines, etc. to wash and tie up, together with calamus and moxa branches inserted into the door pivot on the first day of the year, and boils water in a big pot, and after boiling it, then they each take the water to take a bath.

Vanilla broth bath to get rid of all diseases. According to the Guangxu "Jiaying State Zhi-Rituals and Customs": "take each herb to burn soup bath" (12). Midsummer, a variety of medicinal herbs have been lush growth, medicinal properties of strong Wang, is the best time to pick medicine. According to "Xia Xiaozheng": "This day to store medicine, in order to remove the poisonous gas." (13) Therefore, the Hakka folk area is also popular in the Dragon Boat Festival picking custom. The above mentioned Ai, calamus, vanilla, etc., are examples.

(V) concluding remarks

The Han nation has a long history and its folklore has a long history. Most of the Hakka folklore was brought by the Hakka forefathers from their ancestral home, but in the hilly and mountainous Gannan region, it cannot help but be influenced by the customs of the indigenous inhabitants of the Gannan region. The Gannan Hakka Dragon Boat Festival has inherited the traditional customs of the Dragon Boat Festival of the Central Plains and incorporated the characteristics of the indigenous people of Gannan, gradually forming its own Dragon Boat Festival customs over the years, but still basically maintaining the characteristics of the Central Plains Han Chinese of the Han and Tang Dynasties.