The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival:
The Dragon Boat Festival is an important traditional festival of the Chinese nation. The Dragon Boat Festival was initially a summer festival to drive away the plague gods and sacrifices to the dragon, which were offered by the ancients to the dragons, as well as to commemorate Wu Zixu, Cao E and Jie Zitui. Later on this day the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan killed himself by the river, so people regarded the Dragon Boat Festival as a day to honor Qu Yuan as well.
Duanwu Festival is the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year, also known as the Duanyang Festival, Wuzhi Festival, May Festival, Wuzhi Festival, Ai Festival, Duanwu, Chongwu, Wuzhi, Summer Festival, was originally a summer festival to drive out the plague. Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of the Han Chinese people in China, this day essential activities gradually evolved into eating zongzi, dragon boat racing, hanging calamus ` Artemisia annua, moxa, lavender Cangzhu, Angelica dahurica, drink Xionghuang wine.
Qu Yuan is one of China's greatest romantic poets, is also known as China's earliest famous poets, world cultural celebrities. He created the genre of "Chushu" and the tradition of "Vanilla Beauty". His representative works include "Li Sao" and "Nine Songs". In China's history, the Dragon Boat Festival has been celebrated in honor of Qu Yuan for more than 1500 years. According to legend, after Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, the local people immediately rowed their boats to rescue him, but they never saw his body until they reached the Dongting Lake. At that time, it was a rainy day, and the boats on the lake gathered together by the pavilion on the shore. When people learned that it was to salvage the wise minister Qu Daifu, once again braved the rain, scrambling to row into the vast Dongting Lake. In order to send their condolences, people swing boat on the river, and then gradually developed into a dragon boat race. The people are afraid of the river fish ate his body, they have to go home to bring the rice ball into the river, so as to avoid the fish and shrimp spoiled Qu Yuan's body, and later became the custom of eating rice dumplings.
Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival:
The Dragon Boat Festival customs are dragon boat races, eat zongzi, wear scented sachets, hanging ai, hanging Zhong Kui statue, hanging wallets and colorful silk threads, point of xionghuang wine, eat five poisonous cakes, painting five poisonous pictures.
1, dragon boat racing. Dragon boat race, is the main custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. Legend has it that it originated in ancient times, the people of Chu could not bear to see the wise minister Qu Yuan throw himself into the river to die, and many people rowed boats to catch up to save him. They scrambled and chased him to Dongting Lake, where he disappeared. After that, they rowed dragon boats on May 5 every year to commemorate it. People used the dragon boat to disperse the fish in the river so as not to eat Qu Yuan's body. The custom of racing was prevalent in Wu, Yue and Chu.
2, eat zongzi. Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi, which is another traditional custom of the Chinese people. Zongzi, also known as "corn", "tube dumplings". It has a long history, a variety of patterns. The morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, families eat zongzi to commemorate Qu Yuan, usually the day before the zongzi package, cooked at night, eaten in the morning. Zongzi are mainly wrapped with young reed leaves produced by rivers and ponds, and bamboo leaves are also used in some areas `, collectively known as zongzi leaves. The traditional form of zongzi is triangular, generally named according to the flesh, wrapped in glutinous rice called rice zongzi, rice mixed with small beans called small bean zongzi, mixed with jujube called jujube zongzi, collectively known as glutinous rice zongzi. Jujube rice dumplings harmonic for "early in", so eat the most date rice dumplings, meaning that the children ate in the study can be early in the Scholar. In the past, the readers to participate in the day of the Imperial Examination, the morning to eat jujube rice dumplings, to date, secondary school, university entrance exams in the morning, parents also want to do jujube rice dumplings to the candidates to eat, wishing the candidates to get into a good school.
3, Pei Xiangbao. Dragon Boat Festival children wear scented pouches, legend has the meaning of the evil spirits to drive away the plague (in ancient times, people thought they were sick because of the demons and monsters on the body), the actual is used for the lapel head embellishment decorations. Incense capsule inside the cinnabar, andrographis, incense medicine, wrapped in silk cloth, fragrant, and then the five-color silk thread string buckle into a rope, for a variety of different shapes, knotted into a string, colorful, small and lovely. In some southern cities in China, young men and women also use scented sachets to express strong love.
4, Hanging Ai. Folk proverb says: "Qingming willow, Dragon Boat Festival plug Ai". In the Dragon Boat Festival, people put the plug Ai and calamus as one of the important content. Households have to sweep the courtyard, to calamus, moxa inserted in the door eyebrow, hanging in the hall. And with calamus, moxa, pomegranate, garlic, dragon boat flower, made of human or tiger-shaped, known as Ai man, Ai tiger; made of wreaths, ornaments, beautiful and fragrant, women compete to wear, to drive away miasma. Dragon Boat Festival is also passed down from ancient times, "Health Festival", people in this day to clean the courtyard, hang ai sticks, hanging calamus, sprinkle andrographis water, drink andrographis wine, and remove corrosion, sterilization and disease prevention.
5, hanging Zhong Kui statue. Zhong Kui catch ghosts, is the Dragon Boat Festival custom. In the Jianghuai area, families are hanging Zhong Kui statue, used to suppress the house to drive away evil spirits. Tang Minghuang Kaiyuan, from the Lixan martial arts back to the palace, malaria big hair, dreaming of two ghosts, a small, small, small ghosts wearing red crotchless pants, steal Yang Guifei's scent bag and Minghuang's jade flute, around the temple and run. The big ghost is wearing a blue robe and hat, caught the little ghost, gouge out its eyes, swallowed. Ming Huang asked, the ghost said: my surname Zhong Kui, that is, the martial arts did not pass, would like to get rid of the demons for His Majesty. Ming Huang woke up, malaria is cured, so the painter Wu Daozi, according to what I saw in the dream painted into Zhong Kui ghosts of the portrait, the world in the Dragon Boat Festival, all posted to drive away the evil spirits.
6, hanging purse and colorful silk thread. Ying Shao "customs" recorded: "May 5, to the colorful silk tie arm, the name of the long-life wisp, a renewed life wisp, a life to avoid the soldiers Zeng, a five-color wisp, a Zhu Suo, avoid the soldiers and the ghosts, the fate of the people do not get sick plague". Ancient China revered the five colors, to five colors for good luck. Therefore, early in the morning of the festival, the family adults get up the first big thing is in the child's wrist, ankle, neck tie five-color line. When tying the thread, children are forbidden to speak. The five-color line can not be arbitrarily broken or discarded, only in the first summer rain or the first bath, thrown into the river. It is said that children wearing the five-color thread can avoid the harm of snakes and scorpions; throwing it into the river means letting the river wash away plagues and diseases, so children can stay healthy. Some also say that you can let the five-color thread thrown into the river after the dragon, take away the plague and disease.
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7, point Xionghuang wine. Xionghuang is also a kind of medicine, which is said to be able to kill all poisons. Therefore, during the Dragon Boat Festival, Shaanxi people will soak andrographis in wine and smear it on children's ears, noses, brains, wrists and ankles, etc. It is said that this practice can keep mosquitoes, snakes, scorpions, centipedes, geckos and spiders away from their bodies.
8, eat five poisonous cakes, drawing five poisonous pictures. The five poisons refer to toads, snakes, centipedes, scorpions and geckos. People print five kinds of poisonous insects on the cake on this day and eat it on that day to avoid the plague brought by these kinds of poisonous insects.