The custom of the Dragon Boat Festival in Ningde City is that every household has zongzi incense, dragon boat athletes are gearing up, mugwort leaves and calamus are hung on the lintel, and realgar is lit on the children's foreheads ... The atmosphere of the Dragon Boat Festival is getting stronger and stronger, and the custom of people celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival in Ningde City is also very colorful.
According to Miao Pinmei, a folk expert in Ningde, the most important custom for people in Ningde to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival is to wrap zongzi, and the glutinous rice used for wrapping zongzi should be soaked in yellow alkali, so that the cooked zongzi is light yellow and sticky. There are two kinds of zongzi in Ningde: those with stuffing and those without stuffing. Jiaozi in Jiaocheng and surrounding counties and cities mostly uses candied dates and lean meat as stuffing, while jiaozi in Fuan and surrounding counties and cities mostly uses white zongzi and bean zongzi as stuffing, which can be eaten with sugar. In terms of zongzi leaves, there are also differences in different places. Jiaocheng people are used to wrapping zongzi with bamboo leaves, Fuan and Fuding people like to wrap zongzi with bamboo shoots, and She people wrap zongzi with long and wide leaves shaped like a square pillow. In addition, when tying zongzi, the coastal counties and cities are tied with reeds, and the mountainous counties and cities are tied with hemp rope or thread.
Around the Dragon Boat Festival, Linxi River and coastal towns in Ningde City have the custom of "dragon boat race". In recent years, the scale of dragon boat races in Ningde City has become larger and larger. Jiaocheng, Fuding, Fuan, Xiapu, Gutian and other places have held this event, attracting many athletes to participate. Before the dragon boat race, some places will hold some ceremonies to invite dragons and offer sacrifices to gods, mostly in local ancestral halls, to express people's good wishes, hoping for a bumper harvest in agriculture, good weather and peace.
Dragon Boat Festival in early summer, miasma is heavy, and there are many mosquitoes and flies. Many places in Ningde City have the custom of hanging Acorus calamus and wormwood by the door, because wormwood and Acorus calamus contain aromatic oil, which can avoid miasma and kill mosquitoes and flies. On the Dragon Boat Festival, children will gather around the newly-married family, and the newly-married wife will tie colorful silk thread on her wrist, commonly known as "Memory Festival". At noon, adults have already drunk realgar wine, sprayed it in every corner of the house and lit it on the child's forehead. It is said that you can avoid evil. In some settlements of She nationality, women will go up the mountain to collect "afternoon tea" at noon, and carry out disinfection and disease removal all year round.
In addition to making zongzi and racing dragon boats, Ningde Dragon Boat Festival also maintains the custom of "sending fish" and "sending festivals". The son-in-law will send "holiday fish" to her parents-in-law, usually yellow croaker, while the mother's family will send holiday cakes, summer clothes, pork, zongzi, red rope, sachets and so on. Give them to your daughter before the festival, and the bride will distribute them to the youngest in the family. On Xiapu Island in the west, when the Dragon Boat Festival approaches noon, every household will make "salt tea" with raw salt, green tea, salted olives and green onions. It is said that this kind of tea has the effect of exorcising evil spirits and strengthening the body.
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