the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional festival among the Chinese people. It is one of the ancient traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. Dragon Boat Festival is also called Duan five, Dragon Boat Festival. Do you know the origin and customs of Dragon Boat Festival? As an important traditional custom in China, you must remember it! What other customs do you know besides eating zongzi?
From the memory of Qu Yuan
According to the records of history, Qu Yuan was the Minister of King Huai of Chu in the spring and Autumn period. He advocated the cultivation of talents, the prosperity of the country and the strength of the army, and advocated the alliance against the Qin Dynasty. He was strongly opposed by the aristocratic Zi Lan and others. He was slandered, expelled from the capital, and exiled to the yuan and Xiang river basins. In exile, he wrote immortal poems such as Lisao, Tianwen and Jiuge, which worried about the country and the people, with unique style and profound influence (therefore, Dragon Boat Festival is also called poet Festival).
In 278 BC, the Qin army conquered the capital of Chu. Qu Yuan saw his motherland was invaded and his heart was cut like a knife, but he could not bear to give up his motherland. On the fifth day of May, after writing the masterpiece "Huaisha", he threw stones into Miluo River and died, composing a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.
&Emsp: it is said that after the death of Qu Yuan, the people of Chu state were so sad that they rushed to the Miluo River to pay homage to Qu Yuan. The fishermen rowed their boats and fished for his body on the river. A fisherman took out the rice balls, eggs and other food prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river "plop, plop", saying that if the fish, shrimp and crab were full, they would not bite Dr Qu.
People followed suit. An old doctor took a jar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying it was to make Jiaolong water animals faint, so as not to hurt Dr Qu. Later, for fear that rice balls would be eaten by Jiaolong, people thought of wrapping rice with neem leaves, wrapping colorful silk outside, and developing into brown seeds. &Emsp; later, on the fifth day of May every year, there was the custom of dragon boat race, eating zongzi and drinking realgar wine to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the rice used by zongzi had become 'white and translucent as jade', and its shape appeared cone-shaped and diamond shaped. In Japanese literature, there is a record of "Tang zongzi". In the Song Dynasty, there were already 'preserved zongzi', that is, fruit was put into zongzi. Su Dongpo, the poet, has a poem that "when I see arbutus in Zongli".
Up to now, every Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May, every household in China has to soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and wrap zongzi, with a wide variety of designs and colors. From the perspective of stuffing, there are lots of Beijing jujube palm in the north, and many kinds of stuffing in the south, such as bean paste, fresh meat, Babao, ham, egg yolk, etc. The custom of eating zongzi has been popular in China for thousands of years and has spread to Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Dragon boat race is also one of the important activities of the Dragon Boat Festival. In Miluo City, Hunan Province, before the dragon boat race, you must go to the temple of Quzi temple first, offer the dragon head to the God Weng in the CI, put the red cloth on the dragon head, and then install the dragon head to race on the boat, not only worship the Dragon God, but also commemorate Qu Yuan. In Zigui, the hometown of Quyuan in Hubei Province, there are also rituals to worship Quyuan. In Guangdong, before the dragon boat race, we should first carry out the ceremony of inviting the dragon and offering sacrifices to the gods.
Dragon boat racing, as a traditional Chinese folk water sports and entertainment project, has been popular for more than 2000 years. In addition to the Dragon Boat Festival, it is also held in festivals. If we understand the saying that dragon boat racing is to commemorate Qu Yuan, it has now transcended the scope of a sport and become a spiritual totem handed down by the Chinese nation from generation to generation.
Dragon Boat Festival wearing sachets and other small things also has a long history. The sachet is made of five colored silk threads or rags.
The color of these bags is bright, and the filling in the bags has changed several times. From clam powder absorbing sweat, talisman expelling evil spirits, copper coin, and realgar powder repelling insects, they have developed into sachets containing spices, which are increasingly refined and become a unique folk art of Dragon Boat Festival.