There is no doubt that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in China. There are many explanations about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival in China academic circles, and ordinary people are familiar with the "Festival in memory of Qu Yuan". Today's Dragon Boat Festival seems to have only pictures of eating zongzi and racing dragon boats flashed on TV. I vaguely remember that the Dragon Boat Festival was much more interesting when I was a child. There seem to be many other traditional activities such as sewing sachets, hanging calamus and wormwood, eating salted duck eggs and turning pages. It's a pity that these customs have been dusty for too long.
Thousands of years ago, our lunar calendar, together with solar terms and many festivals, spread to neighboring countries such as the Korean Peninsula and Japan. When Korean books explain these cultures, they often point out that "they are owned by China, Japan, South Korea and other countries", and most Koreans know that the birthplace of these cultures is China. So is the Dragon Boat Festival. The website of the Dragon Boat Festival Cultural Institute in Gangneung, South Korea also specifically states that "Dragon Boat Festival is a festival shared by China, Japan and South Korea", and also introduces in detail the different customs of Dragon Boat Festival in North Korea, China and Japan. However, Koreans believe that the Dragon Boat Festival in Gangneung, South Korea has its own original cultural content, and it is of great value to preserve Korean traditional culture, which is the basis for them to apply for "gangneung danoje festival" as a "world intangible cultural heritage".
In ancient times, Koreans used to regard Dragon Boat Festival, Spring Festival, Cold Food and Mid-Autumn Festival as the four most important festivals. The traditional customs of China spread to South Korea, and Koreans also used wormwood, calamus and other plants to ward off evil spirits on this day, and carried out some sports activities. In the northern part of the Korean peninsula, when the weather is completely warm, people just want to stretch their muscles and take part in some recreational activities, so the Dragon Boat Festival is more lively in these places.
"Sacrifice" and "festival" in Korean have different meanings, which are equivalent to Festival in English and refer to celebration activities. In the traditional culture of Jiangling Village, there is a Dragon Boat Festival celebration that lasts for more than 50 days, from March 20th to the sixth day of the fifth lunar month. The purpose of the activity is to worship the local mountain gods and city gods and pray for good weather. The content of the activity is a "hodgepodge of traditional culture" which combines Confucian culture, folk beliefs, folk art and various traditional sports activities. In order to welcome the Dragon Boat Festival, people here start making wine on March 20th of the lunar calendar and offering sacrifices to the gods on the first day of April. After that, the witch (Han) will carry out activities similar to "jumping". On April 14, local officials, musicians and wizards (Han nationality) formed a team of more than 60 people and rode horses to worship at the Mountain Temple, followed by villagers. Witch (Han) will invite God to a tree, and people will cut down the tree and bring it back to the village for worship in the temple. After God was invited back, local officials and squires first worshipped according to Confucian tradition. Then Shen Han (grandma), the most trusted in the village, began to host a lively and extraordinary worship activity. Accompanied by the noisy percussion music in the countryside, they once again held a worship activity in the shape of "jumping to the gods", which attracted the whole village to watch. On the first day of May, after the Dragon Boat Festival reaches its climax, they will also form a parade and walk through the streets of the village to carry out sacrificial activities along the way. At this time, the villagers also participated in the celebration activities, wrestling and swinging, just like a villagers' sports meeting. Another important program is to form a circle in the open space to watch masked dances performed by officials and slaves. Officials and slaves are one of the most humble people in the area. They put on masks and danced like other people. At first, this kind of dance was to please the gods and pray for blessing, but later, there were many satires on the upper class in the dance story, which became a channel for the lower class to vent their resentment. This "official slave mask dance" has also been designated as "intangible cultural heritage" by South Korea. On the sixth day of May, people sent God back to the mountains. This time, the "Dragon Boat Festival Celebration" with the participation of gods, officials, people and slaves came to an end.
Cultural dispute between China and South Korea
The news that "gangneung danoje festival" has become a world cultural heritage reached China, and many people mistakenly thought that it was unacceptable for South Korea to apply for "Dragon Boat Festival" as a traditional festival created by Koreans. Recently, the author conducted a lot of interviews to study people's views on South Korea. Many young people say that the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the important reasons why they are tired of Korea. But when they understood the difference between the Dragon Boat Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival, many people said that since there was such a difference, South Korea's practice was understandable. Most interviewees believe that China should not blame Koreans for this, but should reflect on itself and learn from South Korea's practice of attaching importance to traditional culture.
At the end of 2005, China also started a nationwide cultural heritage survey and registration, and designated the second Saturday of June as "Cultural Heritage Day" every year. The interviewees interviewed by the author all think that this is a kind of progress in China, and the reason for this progress may also be that "gangneung danoje festival" has taught us a lesson.
However, the news that China began to attach importance to traditional culture caused another wave of turmoil in Korean media. Some Korean newspapers have cautiously speculated that if China retaliates against South Korea by applying all traditional festivals as world cultural heritage, it may be difficult for Korean nationals to accept it. If this "traditional culture war" starts, it will become a thorny issue affecting China-ROK relations.
Cultural exchange is a beautiful talk, and cultural affinity should have made us feel closer. However, a question of "originality and patent right" suddenly crossed between China and South Korea. Culture is different from material products, it always flows in the process of inheritance and dissemination, and the flow to different environments will change accordingly. In particular, many traditional cultures of China have flowed into South Korea, Japan and other places for thousands of years, and various countries and even different regions of the same country have carried out transformation and development when inheriting these cultures. In this case, if any country can prove its original culture, then we have no reason not to recognize it when it applies for a patent. UNESCO has the standard of "originality" when examining the world cultural heritage. The author found that most of the interviewees agree with this principle, and this attitude of Koreans may be unexpected for those Koreans who predicted the "Sino-Korean cultural war". In addition, since it is the culture of several countries, why not continue to inherit, exchange and develop as the owner of the same country?
If you think so, it is important for the two peoples to reach a * * * understanding of the above principles, mutual understanding and tolerance, so as to solve the "dispute over the origin of traditional culture" between China and South Korea. It's easy to say, but not easy to do. It is said that this year's "gangneung danoje festival" invited scholars from China to participate in it to promote our mutual understanding. Such efforts are very beneficial to China-ROK relations, but unfortunately we have not done enough. With the lessons of "Dragon Boat Festival", I hope our cultural exchange will become more and more mature.