The Dragon Boat Festival originates from the memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. Even kindergarten children know this. In fact, there are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival in ancient times: such as worshiping Wu Zixu, the god of waves, commemorating Jie Zitui who escaped into the mountains, commemorating the filial daughter Cao E, etc.
According to research by scholar Wen Yiduo, the fifth day of May was the day when ancient Wuyue people sacrificed dragons. The dragon is the totem of some tribes in Wuyue. Dragon boat racing and rice dumpling throwing are nothing more than people playing with the dragon and making sacrifices to the dragon. Others believe that both the boat race and the eating of rice dumplings were originally activities of the ancient Summer Solstice Festival. Because the Summer Solstice is close to the Dragon Boat Festival, it was later moved to the Dragon Boat Festival custom.
In fact, in the eyes of the ancients, May is not a good month, and May 5th is even more dangerous. It is said that on this day, "evil and evil spirits are in power, and the five poisons appear simultaneously." If you give birth on this day, "the male will harm the father, and the female will harm the mother." ——This is of course superstitious and not worthy of instruction. However, the Dragon Boat Festival is in the middle of summer, and the weather turns hot and humid; especially in the south, epidemics are beginning to set in, and poisonous insects are rampant. People cannot adapt to it for a while, and it is easy to cause diseases. Women who are pregnant and giving birth at this time are naturally at great risk. It is for this reason that all Dragon Boat Festival activities are mainly focused on avoiding evil and poisoning.
As early as the "Book of Rites", there is a record: "On May 5th, orchid soup is collected for bathing." That is, collecting vanilla, mugwort, calamus, silver vine, nettles, wild mint and other varieties Medicinal materials, boiled in soup and bathed in, can not only clean the skin, treat carbuncles, but also make the body light and energetic; the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Orchid Bathing Festival. There is a poem in "The Songs of Chu" that goes "Bathing in orchid soup and bathing in youth".
On this day, people also drink medicinal wine made from calamus and realgar. Both are medicinal materials, and realgar is also toxic. However, fighting poison with poison was also a method used by the ancients to prevent diseases and exorcise evil spirits. ——The leftover realgar wine is smeared on the child’s forehead, chest, hands, feet, etc. Probably because the child is young and not suitable for drinking. If there are any remaining wine roots, sprinkle them on doors, windows, walls, etc. to drive away poisonous insects, which is equivalent to sprinkling Lysol and spraying 84 disinfectant today.
Another method is to carve calamus leaves into human shapes or gourd shapes and wear them on the head; There are also moxa leaves braided into tiger or human shapes, hung on the door or worn on the head. ——Mugwort leaves contain volatile aromatic oils that can repel mosquitoes. It can also be made into moxa, which is a must-have drug for acupuncture.
Also hanging on the door is a five-color peach seal, six inches long and three inches wide, made of peach wood and engraved with five-color characters. The purpose is naturally to ward off evil spirits.
In addition, the ancients also wore colorful sachets for children on the Dragon Boat Festival, containing cinnabar, realgar, fragrant medicine and other substances. They were not only festival decorations, but also had the effect of warding off evil and pestilence.
In addition, on this day, people also try to wrap their arms with five-color silk, also known as "Acacia rope". It is said that it can "ward off soldiers and repel ghosts (prevent weapons from being harmed and subdue ghosts)" and avoid the plague. ——When I was a child, I saw girls wrapping five-color silk threads around paper rice dumplings to give to relatives and friends. Is this a continuation of this custom?
In the middle of May, the grass is luxuriant, and the ancients even fought against it. Fighting grass can be divided into martial fighting and literary fighting. Fighting means that both sides choose a tough grass stem, hold both ends, and let the grass stems cross each other and pull each other. The one who breaks the grass is the loser. ——We also played this when we were young, but it was not necessarily May Day, and it was dedicated to the stems of poplar leaves, which was called "pulling out the roots."
As for literary fights, they are fought using grass names, and the one who is clever wins. For example, in Chapter 62 of "A Dream of Red Mansions", Xiangling, Fangguan, Ruiguan and other girls fight grass as a play, using "Podocarpus" versus "Guanyin Willow" and "Husband and Wife" versus "Sisters". It was the grass-fighting scene around Cinco de Mayo.
The ancients also believed that collecting herbs and processing them into medicines on the fifth day of May could cure many diseases. For example, before dawn, herbs are collected and pounded into juice, and mixed with lime to make medicinal cakes, which can treat knife wounds. On this day, one-headed garlic can be used to treat heartache or malaria, and purslane can be used to induce labor in pregnant women.
Another example is that at noon on this day, I "faced eastward and said nothing" by the leek patch, collected earthworm droppings from the edge of the patch, and collected them. If I encounter fish bones or foreign objects stuck in my throat in the future, I can rub a little mud on the outside of my throat - -This is close to witchcraft.
There are many folk remedies related to the Dragon Boat Festival, such as treating silkworm moth thorns, sun-drying alum to treat insects, inducing the birth of mole crickets, scallions to treat epidemics, gallinopterus to treat teeth, Phellinus mulberry to treat closed throats, lettuce to treat moths, carp Pillows can cure dysentery, figs can cure throat diseases, dates can be burned to ward off fleas, lamp grass can ward off flies, toads can ward off soldiers... The key point is that they all have to be collected and processed on the fifth day of May!
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, lizards were caught on Dragon Boat Festival and fed with cinnabar. In the second year of Dragon Boat Festival, the red lizards were mashed into mud and smeared on the arms of palace maids. As long as the palace maid remains chaste, the red mole will last forever... This is another trick to scare women!
Just think about it, how many things did the ancients do on the Dragon Boat Festival? Making rice dumplings (1), rowing dragon boats (2), bathing orchid soup (3), drinking realgar (4), ordering children's forehead (5), hanging Pu sword (6), wearing Aihu (7), hanging peach seal (8) ), wear sachets (9), wrap colorful silk (10), fight with herbs (11), prepare hundreds of medicines (12), raise lizards (13)... In addition, this day can also be used to apologize (14) and request to be transferred to an official title (14). 15), worshiping ancestors (16), this does not include commemorating Dr. Qu (17), recalling Wu Zixu (18), remembering Jie Zitui (19), remembering Cao Xiaonu (20), offering sacrifices to Zhang Tianshi (21), and wishing the birthday of Maitreya Buddha (19) 22) Worshiping Marshal Wen (23, this is the god who drives away epidemics) - From this point of view, the ancients were really busy and tired during the Dragon Boat Festival!
But in general, all the activities on this day can be summed up to comply with the seasons, prevent diseases and exorcise evil spirits, strengthen the body and improve the spirit. Therefore, it can be said that the Dragon Boat Festival is a national health mobilization carried out by the ancients wrapped in folk beliefs!