Every year, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival. This folk festival, which has been passed down for thousands of years, has always been rich and romantic: eating zongzi, racing dragon boats, inserting Aipu, bathing in orchid soup, offering sacrifices to Qu Yuan, wearing colored thread and drinking realgar wine ... Although the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival vary from place to place, the lively situation is the same. Next, I will introduce several customs of the Dragon Boat Festival in detail, and let's get to know them together. 1. hanging wormwood leaves and calamus
There is a folk saying that "willow is inserted in Qingming Festival, wormwood is inserted in Dragon Boat Festival". On the Dragon Boat Festival, people regard inserting wormwood and calamus as one of the important contents. Hanging wormwood leaves and calamus is a folk festival custom in China. In the Dragon Boat Festival, wormwood leaves are hung in the hall, cut into the shape of a tiger or cut the ribbon as a tiger, and pasted with wormwood leaves. Women compete to wear them to drive away evil spirits. Using calamus as a sword and inserting it in the door couch has the magical effect of exorcising ghosts. 2. Drink realgar wine
Drinking realgar wine on Dragon Boat Festival has been around since ancient times. It is said that drinking realgar wine can kill bacteria, repel insects and eliminate five poisons. In the classic film and television work Legend of the New White Snake, there is a saying that drinking realgar wine can eliminate five poisons and avoid all evils.
why drink realgar wine? The wine brewed with realgar has a special smell, which can drive away poisons such as snakes, insects, rats and ants. Therefore, adults will drink realgar wine, and children can't drink it, so they will smear it on their bodies to avoid the "five poisons". 3. Bathing orchid soup
Bathing orchid soup in mid-afternoon is an ancient custom recorded in Da Dai Li. But the so-called orchid here is not an orchid, but a Eupatorium odoratum of Compositae, which has a fragrance and can be boiled and bathed. "Nine Songs in the Cloud" also has the sentence "Bathing orchid soup will make you fragrant".
Therefore, the most primitive Dragon Boat Festival in ancient times is also called "Bathing Orchid Festival". Guangdong usually uses wormwood, cattail, impatiens, magnolia and so on. In Hunan, Guangxi and other places, cypress leaves, anemone root, wormwood, cattail and peach leaves are boiled into medicinal liquid for bathing, and the whole family washes them regardless of men, women and children. This custom still exists today, and it is said that it can treat skin diseases and eliminate evil spirits. 4. Hanging the Statue of Zhong Kui
Zhong Kui was a Confucian scholar in the Tang Dynasty. Because of his ugly appearance, he was removed from the list by the emperor. In a rage, Zhong Kui slammed into the steps of the palace and died. After Zhong Kui was attached, he became a ghost king who specialized in catching ghosts, and became a door god that people hung up at the end of the year. Because the plague in May is easy to spread and there are many dead people, people think of Zhong Kui, who specializes in catching ghosts, so Zhong Kui is hung on the Dragon Boat Festival and handed down. Nowadays, in the Jianghuai area, every family hangs bells and statues to ward off evil spirits. 5. Dragon Boat Race
There are several sayings about the origin of dragon boat race, and the one we are most familiar with is to commemorate Qu Yuan. Legend has it that on the fifth day of May, after Qu Yuan jumped into the Miluo River, the local people immediately rowed over to rescue him and went all the way to Dongting Lake, but Qu Yuan's body was not found. It was raining that day, and the boats on the lake gathered next to the pavilion on the shore. When other people knew about it, they all came in the rain and rowed to Dongting Lake. Later, in order to pin everyone's grief over Qu Yuan, it gradually developed into a dragon boat race. Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, the dragon boat race is an annual feast that can't be missed. The "Hey Yo" sound of Qi Xin's rowing inspires the players and the people watching the battle on the shore.
that's all I know about the customs of the dragon boat festival. what else do you know, my friends?