Because the Dragon Boat Festival is just around the summer solstice, the direct point of the sun is on the tropic of cancer, and the position of the sun in the sky is the most one day in a year. Tian Rucheng's Travel Notes on the West Lake (volume) is a classic "Pleasure" in the 20th Ming Dynasty: "The Dragon Boat Festival is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and it is called the Mid-Autumn Festival because the sun reaches its highest point at noon and swims at noon".
The name of Duanyang Festival comes from the number of Yin and Yang. Afternoon is the first afternoon in Yang Chen, so it is called Duanyang. Chronicle of Jingchu said: Because the sun is midsummer on the mountain, May is midsummer, and its first afternoon is a fine day, it is called Duanyang Festival.
In ancient times, heavenly stems and earthly branches was the carrier, and the times were universal in heavenly stems and earthly branches. At first, the Dragon Boat Festival was the noon day of the calendar, with the first month as the first month, the fifth month as the noon month, and the noon day as the heavy noon. In the Han Dynasty, due to the unification of North and South and the change of calendar, the court decided to change the Dragon Boat Festival to the fifth day of the fifth lunar month to facilitate the festival.
The date of the dragon boat festival
The traditional Dragon Boat Festival is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is an important traditional festival in China. The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival include: dragon boat race, Dragon Boat Festival, herb picking, hanging wormwood, drinking water at noon, washing herbs, offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, soaking in dragon boat water, eating dragon boat rice, eating zongzi, putting paper dragons, putting paper kites, tying colorful silk threads, wearing sachets and so on.
According to historical records, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 278 BC, Qu Yuan, a doctor and patriotic poet of the State of Chu, was heartbroken and indignant when he learned that Qin Jun had breached the capital of Chu. He resolutely wrote the last poem "Huai Sha" and threw himself into the Miluo River. People along the river are racing to salvage with boats, evoking souls along the water surface and throwing zongzi into the river to prevent fish and shrimp from eating into his body. This custom has lasted for more than two thousand years.