The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on May 5 of the lunar calendar every year, which is one of the traditional festivals in China. In addition to our country, Dragon Boat Festival is also celebrated in other countries such as Korea, Japan and the United States. Below, let's see what customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, as well as the origin and legend of the Dragon Boat Festival.

First, the Dragon Boat Festival customs eat dumplings

In China, the Spring and Autumn things have appeared dumplings, folklore is "to commemorate our country's great poet Qu Yuan and eat dumplings", dumplings are one of the cultural deposits of food. With the improvement of people's living standards, people will also be added to the dumplings inside the braised pork, salted eggs, mushrooms, red beans and other food, dumplings are more and more varied, such as bacon and sausage dumplings, pine nuts and lotus seed dumplings, egg yolk ham dumplings and so on.

Dragon Boat Racing

Dragon Boat Racing is a traditional activity during the Dragon Boat Festival, and is often held in some areas near rivers. According to legend, after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, fishermen rowed their boats to salvage Qu Yuan's body in the river, but it was still not found. Therefore, in order to commemorate Qu Yuan, people will row dragon boats on the 5th of May every year to express their condolences to Qu Yuan.

Wearing scented pouches

In ancient times, people thought that wearing scented pouches for small children had the effect of warding off evil spirits and driving away the plague, and even loaded the inside of the pouches with some mugwort, vermilion sand, incense and other medicines, and then sewed up, and then some colorful threads buttoned on the head of the pouches, knotted into a string. In some areas, men and women would send each other scented sachets to show their love, but nowadays very few people would wear scented sachets.

Hanging Mugwort Leaves

On the Dragon Boat Festival, people hang a bunch of Mugwort leaves on their door brows to ward off plague and miasma. Ai leaves have a fresh scent, can drive away mosquitoes and insects, and have the effect of purifying the air and sterilizing the air, so in ancient times, people would insert ai leaves at the door brow to prevent the spread of disease. In the Dragon Boat Festival, the custom of inserting mugwort leaves has also been passed down.

Second, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival and the legend In honor of Qu Yuan

Legend has it that Qu Yuan was unable to fulfill his ambition to serve his country, and his country was invaded, so he threw himself into the river. At that time, people knew that Qu Yuan died, very sad, many people go to the Miluo River to mourn Qu Yuan, and even some fishermen will put food into the Miluo River, hoping that these fish and shrimp eat enough, do not go to nibble on the body of the Qu Yuan, this action is followed by many people, some people will use the leaves will be wrapped up in the rice into the river. This custom has also been passed down, so people will eat zongzi on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival on the 5th of May to honor Qu Yuan with this act.

In Memory of Cao E

When Cao E was 14 years old, her father drowned in the water on May 5, and Cao E cried out in grief and threw herself into the river on May 22, and her body surfaced with her father's body five days later. The people at that time thought that Cao E was a very filial child, so the governor built a temple for Cao E and renamed the village as Cao E Village. At that time, it was believed that Cao E's filial piety touched the heaven, therefore, the local people would commemorate Cao E on May 5th every year.

Festival in honor of the dragon

Wen Yiduo once called the Dragon Boat Festival "Dragon Festival", so the Dragon Boat Festival is in honor of the dragon? Legend has it that in ancient times, the dragon tribe will rectangle totem sacrifice, therefore, will be in the Dragon Boat Festival will be zongzi people everywhere in the draft for the dragon to eat, and the dragon boat race is also used by the dragon boat, therefore, in ancient times, in order to commemorate the Dragon's Day, will be in the fifth of May to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.