Dragon Boat Festival Information

Introduction to the Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese folk festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar Calendar, also known as the "Duan Yang", "Pu Festival", It is also called "Duanyang", "Pu Festival", "Tianzhong Festival", "Dachang Festival", "Mu Lan Festival", "Daughter Festival", "Children's Festival". It is one of the traditional festivals of the Han Chinese. Duanwu is also known as Duanwu, Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many aliases, such as: Wuzhi Festival, Chongwu Festival, May Festival, Bathing Orchid Festival, Daughter's Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Di La, Poet's Festival, Dragon's Day, Ai Festival, Duanwu, Summer Festival and so on. Although the name is different, but on the whole, the people around the custom of the festival is still the same more than different. To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional custom of the Chinese people for more than two thousand years. Due to the vast area and many nationalities, some of them, such as Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Buyei, Korean, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, She, Lahu, Shui, Naxi, Daolu, Mulao, Qiang, Gelao, Sibeo, Pumi, Ewenke, Yugu, Orochun and other ethnic minorities, also celebrated the festival, and with the addition of many legends and tales, it not only produces a lot of variations, but also a lot of differences. The festival not only has many different names, but also has different customs in different places. Its content is mainly: the daughter back to his mother's home, hanging Zhong Kui statue, welcome the ghost ship, avoiding Wu, posting Wu Ye Fu, hanging calamus, wormwood, swim in the hundred diseases, Pei Xiangbao, ready to sweet, dragon boat race, than the martial arts, batting, swinging, to the children painted with xionghuang, drinking xionghuang liquor, calamus wine, eat five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings, and seasonal fruits, etc., in addition to superstitious color of the activities have disappeared, the rest of the so far spread all over China and the neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat races, have been newly developed, breaking through time and geographical boundaries and becoming international sporting events.

Duanwu Festival from

On the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are many ways to say, such as: commemorate Qu Yuan said; commemorate Wu Zixu said; commemorate Cao E said; from the three generations of the summer solstice festival said; the evil month of the bad day to drive to avoid said, Wu Yue national totem sacrifices said and so on. Each of the above said, each of its origin. According to scholars Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Dragon Boat Festival of the history of education" listed more than a hundred ancient records and expert archaeological evidence, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the ancient Chinese southern Wu Yue national totem festival, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over the centuries, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely and y rooted in people's hearts, so people "cherish and mourn them, and the world discusses their words in order to pass them on to each other", therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's words has the widest and deepest impact, and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people to the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race and eat zongzi, etc., are associated with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and has a history of more than 2,000 years. There are many origins and legends of the Dragon Boat Festival, and the following four are introduced here:

Originally in honor of Qu Yuan

According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记), Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu (楚怀王), during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated for the promotion of the virtuous and the capable, the enrichment of the country and the strengthening of the army, and strongly advocated for the alliance of Qi against Qin, which was strongly opposed by the aristocrats such as Zilan, and Qu Yuan was gluttonously dismissed from his post, driven out of the capital city, and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang basins. During his exile, he wrote such immortal poems as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which are unique and far-reaching (thus, the Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Poets' Festival). In 278 B.C., the Qin army attacked the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland being invaded, and his heart was cut to pieces, but he could not bear to give up his motherland, and on the 5th of May, after writing his final poem "Huai Sha", he threw himself into Miluo River and died, composing a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were in mourning and flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to him. Fishermen rowed up their boats and salvaged his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out for Qu Yuan prepared rice balls, eggs and other food, "flop, flop" thrown into the river, said that the fish and lobsters and crabs eat enough, will not go to bite the body of Dr. Qu. People see have followed suit. An old physician to bring a altar of yellow wine poured into the river, said to be drug stunned dragon water beasts, so as not to harm Dr. Qu. Later, for fear of rice balls for the dragon to eat, people came up with a neem leaf wrapped in rice, wrapped in colorful silk, developed into a brown.

After that, on the fifth day of the fifth month of every year, there is a dragon boat race, eat zongzi, drink xionghuang wine custom; in order to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

Originally in honor of Wu Zixu

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is widely circulated around Jiangsu and Zhejiang, commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC). Wu Zixu, a native of Chu, had his father and brother killed by the king of Chu. Later, Wu Zixu abandoned his darkness and ran to Wu to help Wu conquer Chu, and entered Ying City, the capital of Chu, in five battles. At that time, King Ping of Chu had already died, and Zixu dug up his grave and whipped his body 300 times to avenge the killing of his father and brother. After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fu Chai succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won a hundred battles, and the Yue kingdom was defeated, and King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fu Chai agreed to it. Zixu suggested that the state of Yue should be completely destroyed, but Fu-chai refused to listen to him. Wu Dazai, who had been bribed by the state of Yue, framed Zixu with slanderous rumors, and Fu-chai believed him and gave Zixu a sword, which he used to kill him. Zixu was a loyal and good man, and he looked upon death as a homecoming. Before his death, he said to his neighbors, "When I die, I will dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to see the Vietnamese army enter the city to destroy Wu", and then he cut his own throat, and Fu Cai was furious, and he ordered to take the body of Zixu and put it into a leather bag to throw it into a big river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so it was said that the Dragon Boat Festival was also the day to commemorate Wu Zixu.

The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Cao E, a filial daughter who saved her father's life and threw herself into the river during the Eastern Han Dynasty (23 - 220 A.D.). Cao E was a Shangyu people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, his father drowned in the river, a few days to see the body, the filial daughter of Cao E was only fourteen years old, day and night along the river crying. After seventeen days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and carried her father's body out five days later. The story was passed down as a myth, and the story was passed down to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument for it, and had his disciple Handan Chun write a eulogy in praise of it.

The tomb of Cao E, a filial daughter, is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and the monument to Cao E is said to have been written by Wang Yi of the Jin Dynasty. To commemorate Cao E's filial piety, a Cao E Temple was built at the place where Cao E threw herself into the river, the village where she lived was renamed Cao E Town, and the place where Cao E died for her father was named Cao E River.

Originally from the ancient Vietnamese national totem sacrifice

Many recent excavations and archaeological research has confirmed that: the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric printed ceramic as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The remains of the clan, according to experts deduced that it is a tribe that worships the totem of the dragon ---- historically known as the Baiyue tribe. The decorations on the excavated pottery and historical legends show that they have the custom of breaking hair and tattooing, living in the water countryside, comparing themselves to the descendants of the dragon. Their production tools, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. As a living thing in the altar pots and jars, cooking food printed pots are unique to them, is one of the symbols of their ethnic groups. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was created by them for ancestor worship. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, making the Dragon Boat Festival a festival for the entire Chinese nation.

Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival

China's folk over the Dragon Boat Festival is more grand, celebrated a variety of activities, the more common activities are the following forms:

Dragon Boat Race

Race the Dragon Boat, the Dragon Boat Festival, is the main custom. Legend has it that it originated in ancient times when the people of Chu could not bear to see the wise minister Qu Yuan throw himself into the river to die, and many people chased after him in boats to save him. They scrambled and chased to Dongting Lake when they disappeared. After that, they rowed dragon boats on May 5 every year to commemorate it. The dragon boat was used to disperse the fish in the river, so that the fish would not eat Qu Yuan's body. The practice of racing, prevalent in Wu, Yue, Chu.

In fact, "dragon boat racing" as early as the Warring States period. In the sound of drums, rowing a canoe carved into the shape of a dragon, to do racing games, to entertain the gods and people, is a half-religious, half-entertainment program in the rituals.

Later, in addition to commemorating Qu Yuan, people around the world also put a different symbolism.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas of the dragon boat, both to commemorate the local birth of the modern female democratic revolutionaries Qiu Jin meaning. Night on the dragon boat, lights and colors, back and forth, water and underwater, the scene is moving, interesting. Miao people in Guizhou in the lunar calendar May 25-28 held "Dragon Boat Festival" to celebrate the victory of rice-planting and wishing a good harvest. Yunnan Dai compatriots in the Water Festival Dragon Boat Race, in honor of the ancient heroes of the rock red nest. Different ethnic groups, different regions, paddle dragon boat legend is different. Until today in the south of the many near the rivers, lakes and seas of the region, the annual Dragon Boat Festival will be held in their own characteristics of the Dragon Boat Race activities.

Qing dynasty Qianlong twenty-ninth year (1736), Taiwan began to hold dragon boat racing. At that time, Taiwan's governor, Chiang Yuan-jun, hosted a friendly race at the Half Moon Pond of Fahua Temple in Tainan City. Nowadays, dragon boat races are held in Taiwan every year on May 5th. In Hong Kong, races are also held.

In addition, rowing dragon boat has been introduced to neighboring countries such as Japan, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. 1980, dragon boat racing is included in China's national sports competitions, and held annually, "Qu Yuan Cup" Dragon Boat Race. 1991 June 16 (the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar), in the second hometown of the Qu Yuan in Hunan City, China, Yueyang City, the first international dragon boat festival. International Dragon Boat Festival. Prior to the race, the "Dragon Head Festival" was held, which preserved the traditional rituals and injected new modern elements. The "dragon head" was carried into the Qu Zi Ancestral Hall, where the athletes "reddened" the dragon head (draped with a red sash), the officiating priest read out the sacrificial text, and the dragon head was "opened" (i.e. lighted). Then, participate in the sacrifice of the dragon of all personnel three bows, the dragon is carried to the Buro River, running to the dragon boat race. More than 600,000 people participated in the race, fair and celebration, which was an unprecedented event. After that, Hunan will regularly organize the International Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon boat racing will be prevalent in the world.

Duanwu food dumplings

Duanwu Festival to eat dumplings, which is another traditional custom of the Chinese people. Zongzi, also known as "corn", "tube dumplings". It has a long history, a variety of patterns.

According to records, as early as in the Spring and Autumn period, with Zizania leaves (wild rice leaves) wrapped in millet into a horn-shaped, called "corner of millet"; bamboo tube with rice sealed and baked, called "tube dumplings". The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, to grass ash water soaked in millet, because the water contains alkali, with Mushroom leaves wrapped in millet into a quadrangular shape, cooked, became the Guangdong alkaline water dumplings.

Jin Dynasty, dumplings were officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, the package of raw materials in addition to glutinous rice, but also add the Chinese medicine Yi Zhi Ren, cooked zongzi called "Yi Zhi Zong". Zhou Zhou, "Yueyang customs and local records" recorded: "Commonly wrapped in millet with Aizome leaves, ...... cooked, and rotten, in the fifth of May to the summer solstice to eat, a zong, a millet." North and South Dynasty period, the emergence of mixed rice dumplings. Rice mixed with animal and poultry meat, chestnuts, jujubes, adzuki beans, etc., more varieties. Zongzi also used as a gift for interaction.

To the Tang Dynasty, rice dumplings, has been "white as jade", the shape of its conical, diamond-shaped. Japanese literature recorded in the "Tang dumplings". Song Dynasty, there has been "candied rice dumplings", that is, fruit into the dumplings. Poet Su Dongpo has "in the dumplings see prunes" poem. At this time also appeared with zongzi piled up into buildings, pavilions, wooden cars, cows and horses for the advertisement, indicating that the Song Dynasty to eat zongzi has been very fashionable. Yuan, Ming period, zongzi parcel material has changed from zongmu leaf for Ruo leaf, and later appeared with reed leaf package zongzi, additional material has appeared bean paste, pork, pine nuts, jujube, walnuts and so on, varieties are more colorful.

Till today, the beginning of May every year, the Chinese people have to dip the glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves, package zongzi, its more colorful varieties. From the filling point of view, the north more packages of small jujube Beijing jujube zong; the south has bean paste, fresh meat, ham, egg yolk and other fillings, which is represented by Zhejiang Jiaxing zongzi. Eat zongzi custom, for thousands of years, in China prevailed, and spread to North Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

Scented bag

Duanwu Festival children to wear scented bag, legend has a meaning to ward off evil spirits to drive away the plague, is actually used for lapel head embellishment decoration. The scented capsule inside the cinnabar, andrographis, incense medicine, wrapped in silk cloth, fragrant, and then the five-color silk string buckle into a rope, for a variety of different shapes, knotted into a string, colorful, exquisite and lovely.

Suspension of calamus leaves

Folk proverb says: "Qingming willow, Dragon Boat Festival plug Ai". In the Dragon Boat Festival, people put the moxa and calamus as one of the important contents. Every family sweeps the court, to calamus, moxa inserted in the door eyebrow, hanging in the hall. And with calamus, moxa, pomegranate, garlic, dragon boat flower, made of human or tiger-shaped, known as Ai man, Ai tiger; made of wreaths, ornaments, beautiful and fragrant, women compete to wear, to drive away miasma.

Ai, also known as Ai, Artemisia absinthium. Its stems and leaves contain volatile aromatic oil. It produces a peculiar aroma, can drive flies, insects and ants, purify the air. In Chinese medicine, moxa is used as a medicine to regulate qi and blood, warm the uterus, and dispel cold and dampness. The leaves of moxa are processed into "moxa velvet", which is an important herb for moxibustion.

Calamus is a perennial aquatic herb, and its long, narrow leaves also contain volatile aromatic oils, which are medicines for refreshing the mind, strengthening the bones and eliminating stagnation, and killing worms and sterilizing bacteria.

See, the ancients inserted the wormwood and calamus is a certain role in preventing disease. Dragon Boat Festival is also passed down from ancient times, "Health Festival", people in this day to clean the courtyard, hanging Ai Zhi, hanging calamus, sprinkle andrographis water, drink andrographis wine, and stir up turbid in addition to the corrosion, sterilization and disease prevention. These activities also reflect the fine tradition of the Chinese nation. Dragon Boat Festival on the mountains to pick medicine, is the countries of China's national **** with the same customs.

Suspended Zhong Kui statue

Zhong Kui catch ghosts, is the Dragon Boat Festival custom. In the Jianghuai area, the family is hanging Zhong Kui statue, used to suppress the house to drive away evil spirits. Tang Minghuang Kaiyuan, from the Lixan lecture martial arts back to the palace, malaria, dreaming of two ghosts, a small, small, small ghosts wearing red crotchless pants, stealing Yang Guifei's scent bag and Minghuang's jade flute, around the temple and run. The big ghost is wearing a blue robe and hat, caught the little ghost, gouge out its eyes, swallowed. Ming Huang asked, the big ghost said: my surname Zhong Kui, that is, the martial arts not first, would like to remove the demons for His Majesty, Ming Huang woke up, malaria cured, and then made the painter Wu Daozi, according to what I saw in the dream painted Zhong Kui to catch the ghosts of the portrait, through the order of the world in the end of the day, all posted to drive away the evil spirits.

Hanging lotus bags and tethered five-color silk thread

Ying Shao "Customs" recorded: "May 5, to five-color silk tie arm, the name of the long-life wisp, a renewed life wisp, a life of the Bing Zi Zeng, a five-color wisp, a Zhu Suo, the Bing and ghosts, the fate of the people do not disease plague.

Ancient China worship five colors, to five colors for the auspicious color. Therefore, early in the morning of the festival, the adults in each family get up the first thing is in the child's wrists, ankles, neck tethered to the five-color line. When tying the thread, children are forbidden to speak. The five-color line can not be arbitrarily broken or discarded, only in the first summer rain or the first bath, thrown into the river. It is said that children wearing the five-color thread can avoid the harm of snake and scorpion-type poisonous insects; throwing it into the river means letting the river wash away the plague and diseases, and children can thus preserve their health and well-being.

Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Dreaming Records," Volume VIII recorded: Dragon Boat Festival objects, hundred of rope, mugwort, silver-like drums, flowers and cleverly painted fans, incense candy, dumplings small, white balls. Perilla, calamus, papaya, and all velvet cut, to incense and medicine, with plum red box wrapped. Since the first of May and the day before the Dragon Boat Festival, selling peaches, willow, sunflower, cattail leaves, Fudao Ai. The next day, every family spread at the door, with five-color water ball, tea and wine offerings. The next day, all the houses spread out the flowers on the doorsteps and offered them with five-colored water balls, tea and wine.

Chen Shiliang's "Years and Seasons," citing "Miscellaneous Records of Years and Seasons," mentions a kind of "Duanwu to red and white coloring such as a capsule, with colorful threads, twitching to make the shape of a flower, or with or nailed to the door, in order to avoid the red mouth and white tongue, and is also called twitching money". As well as another "mussel powder bells": "the fifth day of the end of the mussel powder in the silk, decorated with sheep, such as a number of beads. So that the children to bring to absorb sweat." The contents of these portable bags have changed several times, from the clam powder to absorb sweat, to drive away evil spirits, copper coins, andrographis powder to ward off insects, developed into a spice-filled scented pouches, the production is also becoming more and more sophisticated, and became the Dragon Boat Festival unique folk art.

Similarly, there is drinking xionghuang wine: this custom, in the Yangtze River Basin area of the family is very popular. Swimming in a hundred diseases: this custom, prevalent in the Guizhou region of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Selected Poems for the Dragon Boat Festival

Duanwu

(Tang) Wen Xiu

The festival is divided into the Dragon Boat Festival, since who said, the rumor is Qu Yuan;

Can laugh at the empty Chu River, can not be washed to get the injustice of the upright ministers.

Seven melodies.

(Tang) Yin Yaofan

The youth festival times more sentimental, old who knows the feelings born;

Not effect Ai tend custom, but pray for bushels of wine to talk about the rise of peace.

They are the most important of all, and the most important of all is that they are the most important of all, and the most important of all is that they are the most important of all, and the most important of all is that they are the most important of all.

The Song of the Race to the Ferry (excerpt)

(Tang) Zhang Jianfeng

The sky was clear on the 5th of May, and the poplars were crowing the eagles around the river;

Before the king of the country went out of the county, he heard the sound of the river in unison;

The king of the country went out on the river with the right intention, and the horses were already being guided by the red banner;

The two sides of the river were fragrant with the fragrance of the clothes on both sides of the river, and the hairpins shone on the sun like the edge of the frost;

The sound of the drums beat three times, and the red banner opened up.

The two dragons jumped out of the water;

Throwing on the waves, they flew ten thousand swords, and the sound of the drums split the waves and sounded a thousand thunderbolts;

The sound of the drums became more and more urgent, and the two dragons looked at the mark as if they were in a flash;

The people on the slope were alarmed by thunderbolts, and the colorful rainbow at the head of the pole was dizzy;

The front boat had already won the mark by grabbing the water, and the rear boat was out of luck, but the latter boat was empty of power and was not able to swing the scratching.

Seasonal Order. Duan Yang

(Qing Dynasty) Li Jingshan

Cherry mulberry and calamus, and buy a pot of xionghuang wine.

There is a yellow paper post hanging outside the door, but I suspect that the owner of the account is afraid of the spiritual talisman.

Seven Laws. Duanwu

Lao She

Duanwu coincides with the wind and rain, the village children are still in their old clothes;

The invitation to bring a straw raincoat is heavy, and I dare to love the Cao Tang for the mud depth;

The guests are like flesh and blood, and there is no money to buy wine and sell articles;

The year of the meeting of the fish is three feet, and the taste of the bean is not as fragrant as it is today.

The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the four major festivals of the year. May is a poisonous month, the fifth day is a poisonous day, the fifth day of the noon is poisonous time, the end of the three poisons. The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the "end of May". May is the beginning of the entire hot days, five poisonous snakes began to be active, ghosts and demons will be rampant, these will give people, especially to the children who have nothing to worry about and no resistance to bring disaster, must be concentrated in the end of the day in May for the children to eliminate the disaster of the poison, therefore, people also said the end of the month of May is the "Children's Day" or "doll festival".

The Dragon Boat Festival is rich in activities, starting at dawn in the morning and continuing until noon.

Families eat zongzi in honor of Qu Yuan on the morning of the May end, usually wrapping the zongzi the day before, cooking them at night, and eating them in the morning. Zongzi mainly with the river and pond side of the abundance of young reed leaves, there are also bamboo leaves, collectively known as zongzi leaves. Zongzi traditional form for the triangle, generally named according to the flesh, wrapped in glutinous rice called rice zongzi, rice mixed with small beans called small bean zongzi, mixed with jujube called jujube zongzi; jujube zongzi resonance for the "early in the", so eat jujube zongzi of the most, intended to study the children eat can be early in the Scholar. In the past, readers to participate in the day of the imperial examinations, the morning to eat jujube rice dumplings, to date, secondary school, university entrance exams in the morning, parents also want to do jujube rice dumplings to the candidates to eat.

Cooking rice dumplings in the pot must be boiled eggs, conditions and then cook some duck eggs, goose eggs, eat sweet rice dumplings dipped in sugar, and then eat eggs dipped in salt "pressure top". It is said to eat May end of the boiled eggs in the pot of rice dumplings main summer does not give birth to sores; rice dumplings pot of boiled duck eggs, goose eggs in the midday sun for a while and then eat, the whole summer does not have a headache.

The Dragon Boat Festival was officially applied for intangible cultural heritage by South Korea, and has been successful, which is also a profound lesson in the protection of the cultural heritage of our own Chinese people.