The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated ceremoniously among the people in our country, and there are various activities to celebrate it. The common activities are as follows:

Dragon boat race:

Dragon boat race is the main custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. According to legend, people who originated in the ancient state of Chu were reluctant to part with the death of Qu Yuan, a sage, and many people rowed to catch up and save. They scrambled to catch up with each other and disappeared when they reached Dongting Lake. After that, I will row a dragon boat on May 5th every year to commemorate it. Dispel the fish in the river by rowing dragon boats, so as not to eat Qu Yuan's body. The habit of racing is prevalent in Wu, Yue and Chu.

In fact, "Dragon Boat Race" existed as early as the Warring States Period. Carving a dragon-shaped canoe in the drums and playing a race game are semi-religious and semi-entertaining programs in the ceremony to entertain the gods and people.

Later, in addition to commemorating Qu Yuan, people in various places gave different meanings to dragon boat races.

Dragon boat boating in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces has the significance of commemorating Qiu Jin, a local-born modern female democratic revolutionary. On the night dragon boat, the lights are decorated, the shuttle is going back and forth, and the scene is moving and interesting. The Miao people in Guizhou hold "Dragon Boat Festival" from May 25th to 28th in the lunar calendar to celebrate the success of transplanting rice seedlings and wish a bumper harvest. Yunnan Dai compatriots are racing dragon boats at the Songkran Festival to commemorate the ancient hero Yan Hongwo. Different nationalities and regions have different legends about dragon boat rowing. Until today, in many areas in the south that face rivers, lakes and seas, dragon boat races with their own characteristics are held every year.

in the 29th year of Qing Qianlong (1736), Taiwan Province began to hold dragon boat races. At that time, Jiang Yuanjun, the magistrate of Taiwan Province, hosted a friendly match in Banyuechi, Hokkeji, Tainan City. Now Taiwan Province holds a dragon boat race on May 5th every year. In Hong Kong, races are also held.

In addition, dragon boat rowing was first introduced to neighboring countries such as Japan, Vietnam and Britain. In 198, dragon boat race was included in the national sports competition in China, and the "Qu Yuan Cup" dragon boat race was held every year. On June 16th, 1991 (the fifth day of the fifth lunar month), the first International Dragon Boat Festival was held in Yueyang, Hunan, China, Qu Yuan's second hometown. Before the race, a "dragon head festival" was held, which not only preserved the traditional ceremony but also injected new modern factors. The "dragon head" was carried into the Quzi Temple, and after the athletes "painted red" the dragon head (wearing a red ribbon), the priest read out the sacrificial rites and "lit up" the dragon head (that is, lit it up). Then, all the people who participated in the dragon festival bowed three times, and the dragon head was carried to the Guluo River and rushed to the dragon boat race. More than 6, people participated in the competitions, fairs and party activities, which is unprecedented. Since then, Hunan has regularly held the International Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon boat race will be widely spread all over the world.

Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival

Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is another traditional custom of China people. Zongzi, also known as "corn millet" and "zongzi". It has a long history and various patterns.

According to records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, millet was wrapped in leaves of Zizania latifolia (Zizania latifolia) into a horn shape, which was called "horn millet". Rice packed in bamboo tubes is sealed and roasted, which is called "tube zongzi". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in leaves to form a quadrangle, and cooked, which became Guangdong Suanshui Zongzi.

in the Jin dynasty, zongzi was officially designated as the Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, the raw materials for dumplings are also added with Alpinia oxyphylla, and the cooked dumplings are called "educational dumplings". According to the Records of Yueyang Local Customs written by Zhou Ren, "It is customary to wrap millet with leaves, cook it, and cook it thoroughly. From May 5 to the summer solstice, one is zongzi, and the other is millet." During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, miscellaneous zongzi appeared. Rice is mixed with animal meat, chestnut, red dates, red beans, etc., and the variety is increasing. Zongzi is also used as a gift for communication.

by the Tang dynasty, the rice used for zongzi was "white as jade" and its shape appeared as a cone and a diamond. There is a record of "Datang Zongzi" in Japanese literature. In the Song Dynasty, there was a "candied zongzi", that is, fruit was put into zongzi. Su Dongpo, a poet, has a poem "See Yangmei in Zongzi". At this time, there were also advertisements made of zongzi piled into pavilions and wooden carts and horses, indicating that eating zongzi was very fashionable in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the wrapping material of zongzi changed from leaves to leaves. Later, zongzi wrapped with reed leaves appeared, and additional materials such as bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates, walnuts and so on appeared, and the varieties were more colorful.

Until today, every year in early May, people in China have to soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and make zongzi, and the varieties are more varied. From the perspective of stuffing, there are many Beijing jujube dumplings with small dates in the north; In the south, there are many kinds of fillings, such as bean paste, fresh meat, ham and egg yolk, among which Zhejiang Jiaxing Zongzi is the representative. The custom of eating zongzi has been popular in China for thousands of years, and spread to Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.

wearing sachets:

Children wear sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival, which is said to have the meaning of ward off evil spirits and ward off plague. Actually, it is used to decorate the inner head. The sachet contains cinnabar, realgar and fragrant medicine, wrapped with silk cloth, which is full of fragrance, and then tied with five-color silk threads to form a rope, making a string of different shapes, all kinds of exquisite and lovely.

Acorus calamus:

As the folk saying goes, "willow is planted in Qingming Festival, and wormwood is planted in Dragon Boat Festival". On the Dragon Boat Festival, people regard inserting wormwood and calamus as one of the important contents. Every family sweeps the court, putting calamus and moxa sticks in the eyebrows and hanging them in the hall. Acorus calamus, Folium Artemisiae Argyi, Liuhua, Garlic and Dragon Boat Flower are made into human or tiger shapes, which are called Ai Ren and Ai Hu. It is made into garlands and ornaments, which are beautiful and fragrant, and women compete to wear them to drive away evil.

Dragon Boat Festival couplets

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