Dragon Boat Festival, originally founded by ancient ancestors, is a festival to worship the ancestors of dragons and pray for evil spirits. It is said that Qu Yuan, a Chu poet in the Warring States Period, committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo River on May 5th, and later generations also took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. There are also sayings in memory of Wu Zixu, Cao E and meson push.
Dragon Boat Festival, Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival are also called the four traditional festivals in China. Dragon Boat Festival culture has a wide influence in the world, and some countries and regions in the world also celebrate it.
Traditional customs of Dragon Boat Festival
1, roast dragon boat
Dragon boat rowing is a multi-person collective rowing competition, an important activity of the Dragon Boat Festival, a ceremony of ancient dragon totem and a heritage. It is an important activity of the Dragon Boat Festival, and it is still very popular in the southern coastal areas of China. After it was spread abroad, it was deeply loved by people all over the world and formed an international competition.
There are dragon boats and phoenix boats on the Dragon Boat Festival. Phoenix boats originated from ancient black boats, and in some places there are dragon and phoenix boats. Boasting dragon boat is a form of dragon worship in folk belief, that is, using the power of dragon to pray for good luck and ward off evil spirits.
2. Hang wormwood and calamus
On the Dragon Boat Festival, people regard inserting wormwood and calamus as one of the important contents. Every family sweeps the courtyard, inserts calamus and moxa sticks in their eyebrows and hangs them in the hall. It is believed that wormwood also has the function of exorcising evil spirits and attracting happiness. During the Dragon Boat Festival, hanging wormwood on the door has become a habit and a custom of the Dragon Boat Festival.
There is a custom of hanging wormwood on the Dragon Boat Festival all over the north and south. In the south, heaven and earth are regarded as pure yang, healthy qi and auspicious days to drive away evil spirits and diseases, while in some places in the north, evil moons and evil days are regarded as evil spirits and drugs.
3. Wear sachets
Wearing sachets is one of the traditional customs of Dragon Boat Festival. The sachet is usually filled with some Chinese herbal medicines with fragrance and resuscitation, which have the effects of fragrance, insect repellent, plague prevention and disease prevention. Duanyang tied his arm with four-color thread and wore a sachet, which was exquisite and exquisite. The sachet, also known as sachet, sachet and purse, is usually made by wrapping perfume with five-color silk thread, or cotton wrapped with colored satin or cloth, mixing powder of Chuanxiong, Radix Angelicae Dahuricae, Rhizoma Sparganii, Scutellariae Radix, Flos Caryophylli, Asari, Gan Song, Radix Angelicae Dahuricae, Glycyrrhrizae Radix, realgar powder, etc., and then embroidering with colored silk thread, with red, green and hanging at the bottom.
Children wear sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival, which is said to mean to ward off evil spirits and plague. Sachet bags are made into different shapes and strung together, all kinds of small and lovely, and now they have become a common handicraft. In some cities in southern China, young men and women also use sachets to express their deep love.
4. Casting the spike
In Lun Heng, written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the etiquette and custom of "casting the year of Yang" during the Dragon Boat Festival were recorded: "The year of Yang takes fire from the sky, and at noon in May, five stones are melted and cast into vessels, which makes them glow with excitement. When they rise to the sun, fire will come, which is also the way to get real fire. " The ancients thought that there were three fires at noon, when the sun was shining. At this time, it is the best time to melt gold and cast mirrors, and the cast bronze mirrors have incredible power. The custom of using mirrors to ward off evil spirits is widely used and passed down in the southern coastal areas. It is often seen that children who are born soon are wearing silver mirrors and other decorations. This kind of silver ornaments and small mirrors are used by children to ward off evil spirits. Newly built temples and Taoist temples are often decorated with bronze mirrors in the middle of the roof. Even above the doors and windows of new buildings in modern residential areas, you can often find hanging mirrors, which are used to ward off evil spirits. This shows that the cultural belief that mirrors ward off evil spirits is deeply rooted in people's hearts.
5, bolt five-color silk thread
Five-color silk, also known as five-color silk and multicolored silk. The ancient and popular names are Zhusuo and Zhusuo. Those tied to mosquito nets and cradles are also called wanzhuan ropes and health ropes. Five colors of five-color silk represent five elements and five directions, which complement each other and have the mysterious effect of exorcising evil spirits and welcoming good luck. Five-color silk thread originated from the concept of five elements in ancient China. Five-color silk thread tied to the arm, or tattoo. It was once a popular holiday custom to tie one's arm with colored silk thread during the Dragon Boat Festival. Passed on to future generations, it developed into many beautiful decorations, such as longevity wisps, longevity locks, sachets and so on. Its production has become increasingly exquisite and has become a unique folk art of the Dragon Boat Festival.
6. soak in dragon boat water
During the Dragon Boat Festival, it is a traditional custom in southern China to soak in dragon boat water. People call the strong water around the Dragon Boat Festival dragon boat water, dragon water and dragon precipitation. And think that this kind of water is auspicious and has the function of ward off evil spirits. On the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, the black dragon star soars due south. In folk beliefs, the dragon is an auspicious thing and the master of wind and rain. Dragons fly in the sky and clouds and rain. Naturally, around the Dragon Boat Festival every year, the warm and humid air flow in southern China is active, and when it meets the cold air from north to south in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan and other places, there will often be continuous and large-scale heavy precipitation. When the heavy precipitation comes during the Dragon Boat Festival, the water level of the river rises rapidly, providing a good venue for dragon boat fishing. According to tradition, soaking in dragon boat water means good luck and all the best. Every year when dragon boat water comes, people will take their families to the river to wash dragon boat water. The ancients believed that dragon boat water had the functions of exorcising evil spirits, cleaning the body, washing away bad luck and bringing good luck.
This made the ancient northern people gradually form the custom of "avoiding the five poisons" and "hiding from the Dragon Boat Festival".
7, Zhong Kui, bell statue.
Zhong Kui Dance: A folk dance, also known as "Zhong Kui Opera". It is reported that Zhong Kui Dance, which originated in the Northern Song Dynasty, is a traditional folk performance left over from ancient Huizhou. It has many contents, such as "going on patrol", "getting married" and "getting rid of the five poisons", which reflects the people's good wishes of advocating Zhong Kui's integrity and praying for eliminating disasters and reducing happiness. In the folk, "Zhong Kui" is a symbol of avoiding evil and strengthening the body. Dancing in Zhong Kui during the Dragon Boat Festival means eliminating the five poisons, keeping the seasons safe and prolonging life. In the Qing Dynasty, most residents in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces south of the Yangtze River hung photos of Zhong Kui at the gate or hall in May of the lunar calendar to drive away evil and attract good luck.
Zhong Kui catching ghosts: It is a popular custom of Dragon Boat Festival in Jianghuai area. In the Jianghuai area, bells and statues are hung in every household to ward off evil spirits. According to legend, Emperor Tang Ming returned to the palace from Mount Li, and malaria was rampant. He dreamed that two ghosts, one big and one small, were running around the temple wearing red crotch pants and stealing Yang Guifei's sachet and the jade emperor of the Ming Dynasty. GREAT GHOST, wearing a blue robe and a blue hat, grabbed the child, gouged out his eyes and swallowed it in one gulp; When the Ming emperor asked GREAT GHOST, he said, "My surname is Zhong Kui, that is to say, my martial arts is not excellent." . I am willing to exorcise your majesty. After Ming Taizu woke up, malaria was cured, so the painter Wu Daozi drew a picture of Zhong Kui catching ghosts according to what he saw in his dream, and ordered all people to post it on the Dragon Boat Festival to drive away evil spirits.
8. Eat zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival
Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional custom. Zongzi, commonly known as Zongzi, is mainly made of glutinous rice and stuffing, wrapped in bamboo leaves (or Hiragi leaves and bamboo leaves), with various shapes, such as sharp corners and squares. It has a long history and was originally used to worship ancestors. After being introduced to the north, it is made of millet (produced in the north), which is called "corn millet". Because of the different eating habits in different places, zongzi has formed a north-south flavor; In terms of taste, zongzi can be divided into salty zongzi and sweet zongzi. The custom of eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival has been popular in China for thousands of years, and it has become one of the most influential and extensive folk food customs of the Chinese nation, and spread to North Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.
At the beginning of May every year, people in China will soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and wrap zongzi, with various colors and varieties. From the perspective of stuffing, there are many dates in the north, such as jiaozi; There are many kinds of fillings in the south, such as bean paste, fresh meat, ham, clams, egg yolk and so on.
9. Eat Huang Wu
Huang Wu refers to yellow croaker, cucumber, eel, duck egg yolk, and realgar wine (realgar wine is toxic, and ordinary rice wine is generally used instead of realgar wine). Eating Huang Wu is a folk custom of Han nationality, which is popular in Jiangnan and other places. In the fifth month of the lunar calendar, people in the south of the Yangtze River call it May Yellow Moon, which is named because there are five kinds of food with "yellow" sounds on the market.
Eating Huang Wu food at noon on Dragon Boat Festival means mixing five kinds of yellow food. Because Chinese medicine theory holds that the Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is the peak of yang in a year and noon is the peak of yang in a day, we can use the power of the Dragon Boat Festival to restrain bad luck and improve our energy.