What are the customs of Dragon Boat Festival in Ningde City

Duanwu Festival Customs in Ningde City The fragrance of zongzi is wafting out of households, dragon boatmen are rubbing their fists, moxa leaves and calamus are hung on the lintel, and children's foreheads are dotted with xionghuang ...... The Dragon Boat Festival atmosphere is already getting stronger and stronger, and the customs of the masses of people in Ningde City who celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival are very colorful and varied.　　

According to the Ningde City folklore expert Miao Pinmei, Ningde City, the most important custom of the Dragon Boat Festival is to wrap the dumplings, wrapped dumplings with glutinous rice but also with yellow alkaline water soak, so that the dumplings cooked out of the light yellow, and more viscous. Ningde City, the zongzi are divided into two kinds of stuffed and unfilled, Jiaocheng and surrounding counties and cities package most of the stuffed zongzi, fillings are mainly jujube, lean meat, etc., and Fu'an and the surrounding counties and cities package most of the white zongzi, bean zongzi, etc., can be dipped in white sugar to eat. In terms of zongzi leaves, there are different places, Jiaocheng people used to use bamboo leaves to pack zongzi, Fuan, Fuding people like to use bamboo shoots shells to pack zongzi, She people are using long and wide Kan leaves to pack zongzi shaped like a four-cornered pillow. In addition, when bundling zongzi, coastal counties and cities use reed grass to bundle, mountainous counties and cities use twine or thread to bundle.

Before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, Ningde City, Linxi River and coastal villages and towns have the custom of "Dragon Boat Race". In recent years, the scale of dragon boat racing in Ningde City is getting bigger and bigger, and many places in Jiaocheng, Fuding, Fu'an, Xiapu and Gutian have organized this activity, which attracts a lot of athletes to participate in the race. Before the start of the dragon boat race, some places will also hold some ceremonies to invite dragons and offer sacrifices to the gods, which are mostly held in the local shrines to express the people's heartfelt good wishes for good agricultural harvests, good weather conditions and peace and security in the year.

Dragon Boat Festival in early summer, heavy miasma, mosquitoes, flies and pests, many places in Ningde City, the custom of hanging calamus, mugwort next to the door, because the mugwort and calamus contains aromatic oils, can tend to avoid miasma, mosquitoes and flies. Dragon Boat Festival this day, the children will also flock to the new bride's home, by the new daughter-in-law will be five-color silk thread tied to the wrist, commonly known as "remember the festival". At noon, adults drank Xionghuang wine, and sprayed it in all corners of the house, pointing in the children's forehead, the legend can avoid the plague, to the evil, and in some of the She settlement, the women will go up to the mountains at noon to collect "noon tea", in order to prepare for the whole year to disinfect the use of disease removal.

In addition to wrapping zongzi and dragon boat races, to date, the Dragon Boat Festival in Ningde City also retains the custom of "sending fish", "send festival". Son-in-law to give his parents-in-law to send "festival fish", usually yellowtail fish, and the new daughter-in-law's family before the festival to send the daughter festival cake, summer clothing, pork, dumplings, red head rope, incense bags, etc., by the new daughter-in-law to give the oldest and youngest in the family. Xiyang Island in Xiapu, Dragon Boat Festival near noon, families will also use coarse salt, green tea, salted olives, scallions, etc. to make "salt tea", it is said that this tea has the effect of driving away evil spirits and diseases to strengthen the body