Tianjin Dragon Boat Festival Customs

The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, also known as the Duanyang Festival, the word "Duan" has the meaning of the initial, so Duanwu is the first five, and according to the calendar May is the month of Wu, so Duanwu has gradually evolved into the current Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a festival celebrated by all the people of China, who seem to be eating zongzi. But every place has its own customs, and there are always some unique customs that are different from ours, and Tianjin is no exception. Take a look with me below:

? Tianjin Dragon Boat Festival custom one: forehead smear xionghuang?

Duanwu Festival, Tianjin people forehead smear Xionghuang to drive away evil spirits. Ancient people believed that xionghuang "can kill a hundred poisons, avoid a hundred evils, the system of parasites, people wear, into the mountains and forests and tigers and wolves, into the rivers and water and a hundred poisons to avoid". Due to the inconvenience of children to drink andrographis erase seven orifices, so, in the Dragon Boat Festival this day, people use andrographis wine coated in the child's ears, nose, forehead, hands, feet, etc., and in the child's forehead to draw a word Wang. A lending Xionghuang to drive poison, the second lending tiger ("king" like the tiger's forehead, and the tiger is the king of beasts, because of the tiger on behalf of) to suppress the evil.

Mopped between the forehead of the yellow implies that the children's health, peace and security; for the children to drive away disasters, plagues, symbolizing the joy and good luck. Shanxi "Hequ County" cloud: "Dragon Boat Festival, drink andrography, with the coating of the children's forehead and two hands, feet heart, that can be but sick to prolong life."

? Tianjin Dragon Boat Festival customs of the second: eating five poisonous cakes?　

Old Tianjin Wei once had a Dragon Boat Festival custom, that is, eating five poisonous cakes , Tianjin people have to eat five poisonous cakes, five poisonous cakes are people for the Dragon Boat Festival a round pastry, in fact, is the Rose Cake, the five poisons (snakes, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, toads) printed on the pattern of the small cakes or molds made of five poisons in the shape of the once. It is a common gift that Tianjin people give to each other when they visit friends and relatives during the Dragon Boat Festival.

In the legend is a change from the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the 42nd generation of Tianshi handwritten aversion to victory, eat can drive away evil spirits to avoid epidemics, but as early as before the Chinese records, foreign missionaries have been observed in Tianjin and the five poisons cake is similar to the custom of Tianzhong Festival food system. Tianzhong Festival is held at noon on May 5, the Dragon Boat Festival. This custom of aversion to victory on May 5 to ward off evil spirits and epidemics can be traced back to before the Han Dynasty. The talisman that can be swallowed is the secret method of the celestial master known as Shu Tiandi in the Song Dynasty. From the Song Dynasty onwards, the Tianshi talisman of the Book of Heaven and Earth was spread in two opposite directions, north and south, and evolved into the custom of five poisonous cakes for the Dragon Boat Festival in Tianjin at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

? Tianjin Dragon Boat Festival Customs No. 3: Pei Xiangbao?　　　

The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the "Bathing Orchid Festival", and wearing a scented capsule is also one of the Dragon Boat Festival customs in Tianjin. In a special cloth bag, worn on the chest, waist, navel, etc., with fragrance, insect repellent, pest control, disease prevention function. Can also be hung in the car, home. China's folk since ancient times, "wear a vanilla bag, not afraid of five insect pests," said.

The Dragon Boat Festival children wear scented bags, legend has the meaning of the evil spirits to drive away the plague, is actually used for the lapel head embellishment decoration. In the Three Kingdoms Wei Dynasty, Fan Qin wrote in his poem "Tingxiao": "Why do you knock, scented pouch tied to the back of the elbow." In Tang Dynasty, Princess Tongchang's carriage was adorned with five-color scented pouches, which filled the road with fragrance every time she traveled. Because of the exotic spices from foreign tribute, the court also put the scented pouch as a reward. The custom of wearing scented pouches is also prevalent in the folklore. "Pomegranate flower Angular Li bucket when new, who is not bottled wine today. I can laugh at the wind-blocking guests in the river, but I follow the leaves of Artemisia to the Pearl Gate." This ancient poem describes the custom of celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival at that time.

? The fourth custom of the Dragon Boat Festival in Tianjin: wearing a tiger hitching a ride?　　

Tianjin people "tiger hitchhiking" is a Dragon Boat Festival folk ornaments, is handmade cloth production of tigers, dumplings, brooms, gourds, etc., with silk thread up the pendant, this cloth products with five-color silk sewing, the internal calabash, moxa, pomegranate, garlic and other pungent herbs Filled with pungent herbs such as calamus, moxa, durian flowers, garlic, etc., these cloth artifacts can be used to repel insects and avoid the plague in summer.

Olden days, every Dragon Boat Festival, the women of the family will be hand-sewn "tiger hitching" hanging on the back of the child's collar, in order to drive away evil spirits, a lifetime of peace. Now will do "tiger hitching" less people, only a very few old people will do, such as my three aunts, since my baby, every year three aunts grandma will be new to the child to do a "tiger hitching", figure a celebration, good luck.

? Tianjin Dragon Boat Festival customs of the fifth: plug the wormwood?　　　

Tianjin's traditional Dragon Boat Festival folklore, to avoid evil content is more, the insertion of mugwort is an important one, Tianjin people called Artemisia. Ai has an aroma, can drive mosquitoes, flies, insects and ants, purify the air. The so-called door hanging moxa calamus, that is, with calamus, moxa inserted in the lintel or hanging in the hall.

In the Dragon Boat Festival arrangement of all kinds of flowers and plants can drive away evil spirits and diseases, the source is also a long time. People inserted mugwort and calamus as one of the important contents of the Dragon Boat Festival. Such as hanging moxa in the door, "Jing Chu chronicle": "picking moxa as a person, hanging on the portal, in order to avoid poisonous gas." This is due to the important medicinal plants, and can make moxa velvet treatment, moxibustion points, and can drive away insects. May Ai contains the most moxa oil, (at this time is the peak growth period) so the effect is the best, people also scramble to pick Ai. Often in front of the house to hang a few plants of mugwort, due to the special flavor of mugwort, people use it to drive away diseases, mosquito prevention, to ward off evil spirits.

The Dragon Boat Festival, as an intangible cultural heritage of mankind, is not only an inheritance of the traditional culture of the past, but also a festival for the future. By carrying out a variety of customary activities, cultural heritage into the festival, so that children in the annual Dragon Boat Festival to revisit the excellent traditions of the Chinese nation; feel the great patriotic poets personality nobility, enhance the national consciousness and inheritance of the culture of the sense of mission.