Quanzhou Dragon Boat Festival customs: First, kill viruses, repel insects, and ward off evil spirits.

According to the ancients, all kinds of poisonous snakes and mosquitoes flourish during the Dragon Boat Festival. There are many customs on the Dragon Boat Festival in Quanzhou, the hometown of overseas Chinese, to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters, such as children wearing sachets, soaking in realgar wine, frying salt at noon, bathing in orchid water, and collecting

Herbal medicine for afternoon tea, etc.

There are many customs during the Dragon Boat Festival in Quanzhou, the hometown of overseas Chinese, to pray for blessings and eliminate disasters.

Before the Dragon Boat Festival, people hang five kinds of plants on the lintels of doors and houses, namely banyan branches, mugwort leaves, calamus, willow branches and garlic heads, commonly known as the "Five Lucky Plants".

These are mostly aromatic plants that emit a certain smell that can kill bacteria and repel mosquitoes and flies.

"Quanzhou Fu Zhi·Volume 20·Customs" written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty: "Duanyang...hung pu moxa and peach branches on the door, affixed talismans and door posts." What is the salt at noon: around 12 noon on the Dragon Boat Festival, every family

Housewives often take tea leaves and a little salt, stir-fry them in a pot until the salt turns black, then wrap them up while hot and keep them as family medicinal tea. Whenever gastrointestinal problems occur in the summer, they can brew the salt tea at noon and drink it.

It can be effective.

It is said that this folk custom is unique to southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong and southern Zhejiang.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, rural families will light a stove, close the doors and windows, and burn atractylodes, cicada sloughs or mugwort leaves on the charcoal fire, filling the room with smoke to emit a strong smell to kill bacteria and mosquitoes in the room.

This is a very scientific method of indoor fumigation, killing and disinfection using traditional Chinese medicine.

There is also a custom in Quanzhou for children to wear life-extending threads and sachets to ward off poison and evil spirits.

Take five-color silk thread and twist it into a shape, tie it on the child's arm. It will be tied on May 5th and will not be untied until the birthday of the "Seventh Mother" on July 7th, and then burned together with the gold pail.

According to the Records of Quanzhou Prefecture written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, this custom began in the Han Dynasty and has been passed down for more than 2,000 years.

Quanzhou Dragon Boat Festival delicacies The second is to eat traditional delicacies such as alkali rice dumplings and hair cakes.

This year’s college entrance examination coincides with the Dragon Boat Festival, and there are vendors selling rice dumplings on the streets of Quanzhou. It is said that eating rice dumplings means blessing high school, so this delicacy is more popular among people.

Roasted pork rice dumplings are the representative of Quanzhou cuisine and a southern Fujian snack with Han characteristics.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, every household in Quanzhou prepares meat rice dumplings to offer sacrifices to gods and ancestors.

"Kaiyuan Legacy" of the Tang Dynasty says: "In the palace, rice dumplings are made during the Dragon Boat Festival, and horned millet is stored in a plate. Shoot them with a small horned bow, and the one who hits the target will be eaten." From this, we know that horned millet (zongzi) existed before the Tang Dynasty.

The fillings of Quanzhou snack roasted pork rice dumplings include braised pork, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, scallops, chestnuts, peanuts, lotus seeds, braised eggs, etc.

The cooked meat rice dumplings, when peeled off the brown coating, are fragrant, shiny in color, fragrant, oily and not greasy.

However, for Quanzhou people traveling abroad, home-made rice dumplings are the most delicious.

To eat Jian Dui, the Dui is wheat flour (or rice flour or sweet potato flour), and other ingredients are mixed into a paste-like dough, and then fried in a pan to form round soft cakes; there are sweet Dui (brown sugar is used for the ingredients) and salty ones.

There are two kinds of heap (the ingredients are mung bean sprouts, leeks and small white shrimps or oyster omelette).

"Quanzhou Fu Zhi·Volume 20·Customs": "Duanyang... fry it with rice noodles or flour and things in oil, which is called a pile." There is also a legend about frying the pile to mend the sky: Folklore says that it was the time when Nuwa mended the sky in ancient times.

If a gap is missed, it is caused by a "leakage" in the sky, and we should try to make up for it.

Therefore, on the "May Day" day, every household in Quanzhou cooks dumplings to worship the gods in order to plug the cracks in the sky.

This reflects people's fear of disaster caused by prolonged rain and their hope for a good harvest of crops over the summer.

In addition, drinking realgar wine during Duanjie Festival can disinfect and sterilize. Since realgar has corrosive power, you must get the doctor’s instructions and drink realgar wine brewed according to ancient methods.

Quanzhou’s unique Dragon Boat Festival folk customs The third is the three major activities of dragon boat racing, Suoluohao and Water Splashing Festival, which have the characteristics of Central Plains culture and marine culture.

Dragon boat rowing may have been the earliest sacrificial activity for the ancient Yue people to worship the water god or dragon god. Its origin may have begun at the end of primitive society.

"Quanzhou Fu Zhi·Volume 20·Customs" written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty: "Duanyang Festival: Dragon Boat Race." (〖Note〗Ming·Huang Kehui (see "List of Quanzhou People·Huang Kehui") poem: Picking hibiscus to make water clothes, Pu Shang

Next to Fishing Rock, hundreds of oars are floating in the air, and in the mirror, two dragons are flying in the wind, and the rain is falling on the river pole.

"Dragon boat racing activities during the Dragon Boat Festival in Quanzhou are similar to those in other places. It is famous for the Quangang Shage Dragon Boat Race. It is one of the earliest villages in the world to carry out the Dragon Boat Festival custom.

This folk custom began in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 600 years.

Shage Village is located on the south bank of Meizhou Bay, opposite the Mazu Temple on Meizhou Island.

After integration and evolution, the Shage Dragon Boat Race has become a part of Mazu culture. It also commemorates the recovery of Taiwan by the upright officials Wang Zhongxiao and Zheng Chenggong.