The Dragon Boat Festival is a very popular folk festival in China. Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional habit of the Chinese nation since ancient times. Due to the vast area and many stories and legends, not only has it produced many different Festival names, and there are also different customs in different places. What are the customs in various places during the Dragon Boat Festival?

1. Fujian

The Dragon Boat Festival customs in various parts of Fujian mainly include boiling rice dumplings to wash the body, smoking yellow smoke, giving fish, instigating luoluo dance, dragon boat racing, tying five-color silk thread, and bathing in orchid water. , collecting herbs for afternoon tea, worshiping ancestors, catching ducks on the water, eating peaches, eating rice dumplings, eating fried dumplings, eating bowls of Taipingyan, etc. It is an old custom in Fuzhou during the Dragon Boat Festival that the daughter-in-law presents her parents-in-law with shrouds, shoes and socks, rice dumplings, and fans. In Jianyang County, the fifth day is the day when the king of medicines dry their medicine bags, and everyone makes sauce on this day. During the Dragon Boat Festival in Shanghang County, people use small boats tied with reeds to make dragon shapes and play on the waterside, which is called racing. After the Dragon Boat Festival race in Xianyou County, paper was presented at Huxiao Pond to commemorate the death of Qi Jiguang, who was drowned by soldiers in the Gui Year of Jiajing. Before the Dragon Boat Festival in Shaowu Mansion, women use crimson yarn as bags to hold talismans. It is also made of five-color velvet, connected with colorful threads, and tied to the hairpin. The young girl is hung on the back and is called "Dou Niang".

2. Jiangsu

In addition to dragon boat racing, the Dragon Boat Festival customs in Jiangsu include rice dumplings, realgar wine, and five yellow banquets. Festival decorations include pictures of the five poisons, calamus mugwort leaves, statues of Zhong Kui, Wrap colorful threads around the arms, hang rice dumplings with silk threads, wear five poison clothes, wear sachets, etc. In the Jiangnan area, there is also a unique custom of expelling poison and avoiding evil - eliminating red mouth and white tongue; hanging portraits of Zhongkui and Guandi in the hall, offering bottles in front of the portraits, inserting calamus and moxa leaves, and placing red paper at the roots on the left and right sides of the door. Use calamus and mugwort leaves; write the following words on red paper and post them outside the door, which are meant to remove evil spirits. There is a saying in Yizheng County: "Put your pants on, buy yellow croaker". During the Dragon Boat Festival in Nanjing, every family takes a box of water, adds a little realgar, and two goose-eye coins. The whole family uses this water to wash their eyes, which is called "breaking fire eyes". It is said that it can protect the eyes from eye diseases for a year. There is a night dragon boat show in Wujin. At night, small lanterns are hung around the dragon boat to race, and there are flutes and drums singing in harmony. During the Dragon Boat Festival in Jiading County, everyone, rich or poor, must buy totoaba (commonly known as catfish) and cook it.

3. Guangdong

Guangdong has a long history of celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival has been a lively, grand and festive festival in Guangdong since ancient times. There are many customs during the Dragon Boat Festival in Guangdong, including dragon boat riding, eating rice dumplings, putting mugwort on the dragon boat, dotting dragon eyes, worshiping gods and ancestors, praying for blessings and eliminating disasters, collecting water at noon, planting mugwort, watching dragon boats, having dragon boat meals, gathering for lunch, and Paper kites, herbal washing water, dragon boat soaking water, etc. Cantonese people celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival with a festive spirit and rich customs. The river network in the south is criss-crossed, and water sports have a long history.

4. Hainan

Every Dragon Boat Festival in Hainan, in addition to making and eating rice dumplings, there are also traditional customs such as washing dragon boat water, racing dragon boats, eliminating five poisons, and worshiping ancestors. "Yazhou Chronicles" records, "On the Dragon Boat Festival in May, there is a dragon boat race in Baoping. They make horned rice dumplings to worship ancestors as gifts to each other. They also collect reeds, vanilla, and mugwort, soak them in water to offer sacrifices to the gods, and bathe their bodies. . Or fold moxa and hang it on the door to prevent the epidemic. On that day, all the ladies and gentlemen went out to watch the boat race. Children flew various paper kites, and Le Luo Chong Yu Li Fu gathered thousands of people to fight with each other. Although the government cannot ban it, it can be seen that people in ancient Yazhou had extremely rich celebration activities before and after the Dragon Boat Festival.

5. Guangxi

The Dragon Boat Festival folk activities in Guangxi mainly include dragon dance, lion dance, waist drum and other folk cultural performances. In southern Guangxi, such as Ningming, Chongzuo, Longzhou and other places, during the Dragon Boat Festival, cold brown rice dumplings are wrapped, called "grey water rice dumplings". Before making rice dumplings, go to the mountains and cut down some branches and leaves of trees such as the neem tree. When they are half dry in the sun, they are piled on the ground and burned. The ashes are then put into a bamboo container and rinsed with clean water. Finally, use the filtered brown water to soak the prepared glutinous rice. After soaking, the glutinous rice will reveal a unique fragrance of plant ash in the original aroma. The rice dumplings will be light yellow or brown after being cooked.

6. Zhejiang

The Dragon Boat Festival is a special festival with a long history, rich content, and diverse culture and customs for the people of Zhejiang. In a general sense, worshiping ancestors, racing dragon boats, eating rice dumplings, worshiping dragon heads, dotting dragon eyes, wearing red clothes, hanging calamus and mugwort leaves, tying five-color silk, drinking realgar wine, eating five yellows, wearing sachets, and picking herbs are relatively common customs. . In addition, Wuyi, Quzhou and other places in Jinhua have the custom of eating garlic during the Dragon Boat Festival. During the Dragon Boat Festival in Jinhua, it is still customary for married daughters to "carry the Dragon Boat Festival" for their parents. The daughter prepares a load of rice dumplings. Every five rice dumplings are made into a small bundle, and two small bundles are tied into a bunch as a gift for her parents. At the same time, there are also gifts such as pork. There are differences in the content or details of customs in different places. Ningbo's "Dragon Boat Festival" mainly contains fish, meat, goose, wine, etc., which are held in baskets, ranging from four colors to twelve colors. Relatives also give gifts to each other, which is called "Sending Festival".

7. Jiangxi

During the Dragon Boat Festival in Jiangxi, people eat rice dumplings, drink realgar wine, hang calamus, mugwort, and mugwort leaves, make damselflies (a kind of headdress), weave colorful ropes, and wear Customs such as sachets, forehead paintings, wearing colorful ropes, and dragon boat racing. During the Wu Festival in Jiangxi Jianchang Prefecture, Baicao water is used to bathe in order to prevent scabies. Xinchang County drinks it with realgar and cinnabar wine, which is called "eye-opening".

8. Anhui

The Dragon Boat Festival customs in Anhui mainly include walking on grass, returning to one's parents' home, dragon boat racing, city rice dumplings, farm rice dumplings, planting cattails and moxa mugwort, drinking realgar wine, and hanging incense. Wrapping and wearing colorful silk rice dumplings, fighting with hundreds of herbs and so on. There are generally two ways to fight against grass: one is to compare the names of grasses and answer each other with the names of grasses on the roadside. One is to test the toughness of the grass, and the tougher one wins. On the Dragon Boat Festival, people in the city usually eat rice dumplings, while people in the countryside eat "big leaf cake".

9. Hunan

The Dragon Boat Festival customs along the Miluo River in Hunan mainly include holding family banquets, eating rice dumplings, planting moxa and hanging calamus, drinking realgar wine, racing dragon boats, watching dragon boats, and returning home. It also includes customs such as singing praises, launching dragon boats into the water, red dragon heads, going to temples and other customs with unique cultural connotations to worship Qu Yuan. The boat race in Yuezhou Prefecture, Hunan Province is used to ward off disasters and diseases; it is also used as a straw boat to flood water, which is called "sending away plague". During the Dragon Boat Festival in You County, Hunan, pregnant women are served with flower coins to drink and eat by the rich, while the poor prepare chicken wine and put money in bamboo sticks, which they offer in front of the dragon's head on the dragon boat to pray for a safe delivery.

10. Yunnan

The Dragon Boat Festival customs in Yunnan include welcoming gods, laying coins, first offerings, sub-offerings, drinking blessings and receiving glutinous rice, Wang Liao (send off to gods), etc., and there are also clothes Hanfu, reciting poetry, performing Shaoxing opera, shooting ceremony and other performances. Local people in Pu'er, Yunnan do not eat rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, but eat medicinal roots.

The Dragon Boat Festival is always busy. Before the festival, people rush to buy rice dumpling leaves, calamus, mugwort, madder... Tradition is a wonderful power, and every generation lives it voluntarily. During the Dragon Boat Festival, these customs are completed year after year. The purpose is to carry forward the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation, deeply explore the cultural and spiritual connotations of traditional festivals, and let the majority of young people understand traditional festivals, love traditional festivals, and inherit cultural customs.