The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of the Chinese nation since ancient times, and although the country has a wide area and people know many different stories and legends, the customs are basically unified. Below I have organized for you the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival and the customs of the introduction, I hope you like it!
Origin of the Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival was originally used to worship the dragon ancestor, pray for blessings to ward off evil spirits. Because of the legend that Qu Yuan, a poet during the Warring States period, jumped into the river and killed himself on the fifth day of the fifth month, people later made the Dragon Boat Festival a festival to honor Qu Yuan.
Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival
1, Dragon Boat Festival eat zongzi: zongzi is also a kind of medicinal food. Glutinous rice has a beneficial effect on the spleen, appetizer and digestion. The leaves used to wrap the dumplings are more elaborate. Most of the north with reed leaves, the south more bamboo leaves and lotus leaves.
2, hanging moxa calamus: after the Dragon Boat Festival, the evil is mainly hot and humid, dirty, so we need to aroma wet, aroma turbid, Dragon Boat Festival customs are always inseparable from the aroma.
3, wearing a scented bag: the Dragon Boat Festival wearing a scented bag, not only to ward off evil spirits and expel the plague, but also a lapel head embellishment of the wind. Cinnabar, andrographis, incense medicine, wrapped in silk cloth, fragrant, and then five-color silk string buckle into a rope, for a variety of different shapes, knotted into a string, colorful, delicate and eye-catching.
4, drink Xionghuang wine: Xionghuang is a mineral, commonly known as "cockle stone", its main component is arsenic sulfide, and contains mercury, toxic. Generally drink andrography wine, just in white wine or home-brewed yellow wine to add a trace of andrography and become. Xionghuang wine has the efficacy of sterilizing and repelling worms to solve the five poisons, which can effectively prevent themselves from being attacked by the five insects.
Legend of Dragon Boat Festival
Legend has it that the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a native of Chu during the Warring States period, when Qu Yuan became a great doctor at the age of 22, in front of King Huai of Chu, who trusted him greatly. Soon after, the big traitor of Chu state looked at Qu Yuan not favorably, so he kept saying bad things about Qu Yuan in front of King Huai of Chu. King Huai of Chu listened to the slanderous words and no longer trusted Qu Yuan. After a few days, the people of Qin tricked King Huai of Chu and put him under house arrest, and not long after, he died. After the death of King Huai of Chu, his son became the throne called King Xiang of Chu, King Xiang of Chu drove Qu Yuan to the south of the Yangtze River, according to legend, the Dragon Boat Race is to save the patriotic poet Qu Yuan who threw himself into the Miluo River to die, put the dumplings into the river in order to let the fish, shrimp and crabs eat their fill, and no longer go to eat Qu Yuan's body.
Dragon Boat Racing at Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Racing is one of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival in China, and one of the most important festive folklore activities of the Dragon Boat Festival, which is prevalent in the southern region of China, and also in the north near the rivers and lakes of the city there are Dragon Boat Racing customs, and most of them are rowing dry dragon boats in the form of the dance dragon boat.
On the origin of dragon boat racing, there are many ways of saying, there are sacrifices to Cao E, sacrifices to Qu Yuan, sacrifices to the water god or dragon god and other ritual activities, its origin can be traced back to the Warring States period. Dragon boat racing has been introduced to neighboring countries such as Japan, Vietnam and the United Kingdom, and is the official competition of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. 2011 May 23, dragon boat racing was approved for inclusion in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Dragon boat racing is the main custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. Legend has it that it originated in ancient times when 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, chased to Dongting Lake when they disappeared. After that, they rowed dragon boats on May 5 every year to commemorate it. The dragon boat was used to disperse the fish in the river, so that the fish would not eat Qu Yuan's body. The practice of racing, prevalent in Wu, Yue, Chu.
There is also a saying that it is in honor of Wu Zixu and Cao E. The legend has it that Wu Zixu was slandered by his wife. Legend has it that Wu Zixu, who was slandered by the king of Wu, was thrown into the waves of the Qiantang River by the king of Wu, and was rescued by Cao E in her boat. "On the fifth day of the fifth month, when it was time to welcome Wu Jun, he went up against the waves and was flooded by the water" (Cao E Stele). Later generations then rowed a dragon boat, as the rescue of the Wu.
People in different regions also paid the dragon boat racing different symbols. Different ethnic groups, different regions, dragon boat legends and time are different, but most of the region near the river, lake and sea, the annual Dragon Boat Festival will be held in their own characteristics of the dragon boat racing activities.