Customs before and after Dragon Boat Festival

The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month, commonly known as "Dragon Boat Festival". Ending means "beginning" and "beginning". The fifth day can be called Dragon Boat Festival. In the lunar calendar, the earthly branch marks the moon, the shade is built in the first month, February is the base, and May is noon in turn, so May is called noon month, and "five" is connected with "noon", and "five" is also the yang number, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Dragon Boat Festival, Worship for Wu, Duanyang and Zhongtian. According to historical records, the word "Dragon Boat Festival" first appeared in the local custom of Jin people and Zhou Dynasty: "Dragon Boat Festival in midsummer, cooking millet." Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival of Han nationality in China. The necessary activities of this day gradually evolved into: eating zongzi, dragon boat racing, hanging calamus and mugwort leaves, smoking Atractylodes rhizome and angelica dahurica, and drinking realgar wine. It is said that eating zongzi and dragon boat racing is to commemorate Qu Yuan, so after liberation, the Dragon Boat Festival was named "Poet's Day" to commemorate Qu Yuan. As for hanging calamus, wormwood leaves, smoked atractylodes rhizome and angelica dahurica, drinking realgar wine is said to suppress evil spirits. Although the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated every year, its origin is not very clear. To sum up, there are roughly the following statements.

First, in memory of Qu Yuan. This theory originated from the records of Wu Jun's "The Peace of Continuation of Qi" in the Southern Liang Dynasty and "The Time of Jingchu" in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. It is said that Qu Yuan threw himself into the river on the fifth day of May. Trapped by dragons after death, the world mourned. He throws five-color silk zongzi into the water every day to repel mosquitoes. It is also said that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, the local people immediately rowed for rescue, and all the way to Dongting Lake, but Qu Yuan's body was not found. It was raining at that time, and the boats on the lake gathered at the pavilion on the shore. When people learned that it was to salvage the sage Dr. Qu, they went out in the rain and rushed into the vast Dongting Lake. In order to mourn, people rowed on rivers, and later it gradually developed into a dragon boat race. Eating zongzi and racing dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival seems to be related to commemorating Qu Yuan, as evidenced by Wen Xiu's poem "Dragon Boat Festival" in the Tang Dynasty: "The festival is divided into Dragon Boat Festival, and it is rumored that it is Qu Yuan. It is ridiculous that the Chu River is empty and cannot be washed directly. "

Second, Ying Tao said. This sentence comes from Cao E tablet in the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, after the death of Wu Zixu, a loyal minister of the State of Wu, he became Shen Tao, and the world mourned and sacrificed, so there was the Dragon Boat Festival.

Third, the Dragon Boat Festival said. This statement comes from Wen Yiduo's Dragon Boat Festival Examination and Dragon Boat Festival History Education. He believed that the fifth day of May was the day when the "Dragon" tribe in ancient wuyue held totem sacrifices. The main reason is: (1) Eating zongzi and dragon boat racing are the two most important activities of the Dragon Boat Festival, both of which are related to dragons. Zongzi thrown into the water is often stolen by mosquitoes and dragons, and dragon boat races. (2) The relationship between race crossing and ancient wuyue is particularly deep. Besides, Wuyue people have the custom of tattooing constantly to look like a dragon. (3) The ancient folk custom of "tying the arm with colored silk" on the fifth day of May should be a relic of the tattoo custom of "Like a dragon".

Fourth, the theory of evil day. In the pre-Qin period, it was generally believed that May was a poisonous month and the fifth was an evil day. Midsummer in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals stipulates that people should abstain from sex and fast in May. "Xia Zheng Xiao" records: "Store medicine this day to get rid of poisonous gas." It is recorded in "Da Dai Li" that "the livestock orchid takes a bath on May 5", and there are many legends that the fifth day is the taboo day for bathing to exorcise evil spirits. The famous Meng Changjun in Historical Records and Biography of Meng Changjun was born on May 5th. His father asked his mother not to have him, thinking that "a child born in May is longer than a family, which is not good for parents." "Custom Pass" was lost. "It is said that on May 5th, a child was born, and the male harmed his father and the female harmed his mother". Wang Chong, the author of Lun Heng, also described: "The first month and May are taboos; Kill your father and your mother in May of the first month. " Wang Zhene, a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was born on the fifth day of May. His grandfather named him "Zhen Xie". Evonne and Song Huizong were born on the fifth day of May, and were fostered outside the palace since childhood. It can be seen that it is a common phenomenon to regard the fifth day of May as an evil day in ancient times. It can be seen that this day has been an unlucky day since the pre-Qin period. In this way, it is logical to insert calamus and mugwort leaves to exorcise ghosts, smoke atractylodes rhizome and angelica dahurica and drink realgar wine to avoid the epidemic on this day.

Fifth, the summer mentioned on the solstice. Liu Deqian, who holds this view, put forward three main reasons in The Origin of Dragon Boat Festival and Interesting Talk about Traditional Festivals in China: (1) The authoritative book The Story of the Years of Jingchu did not mention the festival custom of eating zongzi on the fifth day of May, but was written on the solstice festival in summer. As for Du Jing, Du Taiqing's Jade Candle Collection in the Sui Dynasty listed it as an entertainment activity from summer to the sun, which shows that it was not necessarily to salvage Qu Yuan, a great poet who threw himself into the river. (2) Some contents in the custom of Dragon Boat Festival, such as "stepping on a hundred herbs", "fighting a hundred herbs" and "picking herbs", have nothing to do with Qu Yuan. (3) The first explanation of the Dragon Boat Festival in Beautiful Scenery at the Age of Years is: "The sun shines, and the Dragon Boat Festival is in midsummer, so it can also be called midsummer festival. Therefore, the earliest origin of the noon festival is the summer solstice. There are many controversies, and the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan has the most extensive influence. Because of Qu Yuan's outstanding personality and art, people are willing to attribute this anniversary to him.

Dietary customs of Dragon Boat Festival

The earliest food of the Dragon Boat Festival should belong to the "owl soup" of the Western Han Dynasty. Quoting Historical Records and Biography of Emperor Wudi, he said: "The Han Dynasty sent owls to Dong Jun, and on May 5th, officials were given owl soup. Eat it because of bad birds. " Probably because owls are difficult to catch, the custom of eating owl soup didn't last. Filing is the protagonist of the Dragon Boat Festival-Zongzi, which appeared after the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was not until the Jin Dynasty that zongzi became the festival food of the Dragon Boat Festival. "Local customs": "May 5, the summer of the same solstice, ... first celebrate these two festivals, then wrap them with glutinous rice leaves, mix them with millet, and cook them with pure ash juice. At the same time, there is a kind of Dragon Boat Festival food called "turtle", which was only a flash in the pan in the Jin Dynasty and then disappeared. Only Zongzi, called "Zongzi" in Local Conditions and Customs, has become the most popular Dragon Boat Festival food in Qu Yuan's legend for thousands of years.

According to the practice recorded in "Local Customs", the zongzi at that time was mainly millet, and no other fillings were added except millet. However, under the ingenious management of China people who pay attention to diet, the zongzi I can see today has changed in shape and content.

First of all, as far as modeling is concerned, there are triangles, quadrangles, pillows, small towers, round sticks and so on. The material of zongzi leaves varies from place to place. Because bamboo is abundant in the south, local materials are used to wrap zongzi with bamboo leaves. Most people like to use fresh bamboo leaves, because zongzi tied with dried bamboo leaves have no fragrance of bamboo leaves after cooking. Northerners are used to tying zongzi with reed leaves. Reed leaves are slender and narrow, so two or three leaves should be used overlapping. The size of zongzi also varies widely, ranging from giant bean zongzi weighing two or three pounds to sweet zongzi that is small and exquisite and less than two inches long.

As far as taste is concerned, zongzi stuffing is both meat and vegetables, sweet and salty. Jiaozi in the north is mainly sweet, while jiaozi in the south is less sweet and more salty. The content of the material is the part that can best highlight the local characteristics.

There are about three kinds of zongzi in Beiping: one is white zongzi made of glutinous rice, steamed and eaten with sugar. The other is jujube zongzi, which is mainly filled with dates and preserved fruits. The third kind is red bean paste zongzi, which is relatively rare. There is also a kind of zongzi in North China, which uses yellow rice instead of glutinous rice and is filled with red dates. When steamed, I saw Huang Chengcheng's red dates embedded in sticky millet. Some people called them "agate wrapped in gold".

Zhejiang Huzhou Zongzi is fragrant and soft, and it is divided into two varieties: salty and sweet. Pickled with fresh pork and soaked in superior soy sauce. Each zongzi contains a piece of fat meat and a piece of lean meat. Tangyuan is filled with jujube paste or bean paste. Add a piece of pork suet on it. Steamed, lard mixed with bean paste is very smooth and palatable. Zongzi produced by Wufangzhai is especially famous. The fillings are all specially selected, including eight-treasure dumplings, chicken dumplings, bean paste dumplings, fresh meat dumplings and so on, each with its own characteristics.

Sichuan's pepper and salt beans jiaozi is also very distinctive. First, soak glutinous rice and red beans for half a day, add pepper noodles, Sichuan salt and a little diced bacon, and wrap them into four-corner dumplings. Boil for three hours, then put it on barbed wire and bake it with charcoal. It tastes crisp outside and tender inside, which is quite tasty.

Guangdong Zhongshan Ludou Zongzi is characterized by a round stick shape and a thick arm. There are also sweet and salty ingredients. Sweet ones are lotus seed paste, red bean paste, chestnut paste and jujube paste; Salty bacon, roast chicken, egg yolk, scallops, mushrooms, mung beans and barbecued pork.

Zongzi in southern Fujian is divided into alkali zongzi, meat zongzi and bean zongzi. Alkaline zongzi is steamed by adding lye to glutinous rice. It's sticky, soft and slippery. Ice with honey or syrup is especially delicious. Jiaozi's meat stuffing consists of braised pork, mushrooms, egg yolk, dried shrimps and dried bamboo shoots. The meat buns in Xiamen are the most famous. Bean buns are very popular in Quanzhou. They are made of September beans mixed with a little salt and wrapped in glutinous rice. When steamed, the beans smell sweet, and some people eat them with sugar.

Talking about zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival

Eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is now only known to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan. However, according to experts' research, Zongzi is just a common folk food, which was not fixed at the Dragon Boat Festival at first. It is said that eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is a sacrifice to Qu Yuan, which is formed by the attachment of future generations and only reflects the wishes of the people. In fact, the origin of eating zongzi (the day before Tomb-Sweeping Day) is earlier than eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, which was formed to commemorate the meson push of Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period. Until now, many places still have the folk custom of Tomb-Sweeping Day eating zongzi the day before.

Eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, as a national custom, first appeared in the local custom written in the early Zhou Dynasty in the Western Jin Dynasty: "Mid-summer Dragon Boat Festival, cooking millet." In the Tang and Song Dynasties, Zongzi had become a necessary food for the Dragon Boat Festival.

Evolution of Zongzi Dialect

In the spring and autumn period, millet was wrapped in water bamboo leaves into horns, which were called "horny millet"; Rice packed in bamboo tubes is sealed and baked, which is called "tube zongzi".

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty: plant ash soaked millet, and because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in leaves into a quadrangle, and cooked to make Cheng Guangdong alkaline zongzi.

Jin Dynasty: Zongzi was officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to rice, Alpinia oxyphylla was added to make zongzi, and the boiled zongzi was called "educational zongzi".

Southern and Northern Dynasties: Miscellaneous Zongzi appeared. The variety has increased, and the rice is mixed with animal meat, chestnuts, red dates and red beans, and the wrapped zongzi is also exchanged as a gift.

Tang dynasty: the rice used for zongzi is "white as jade", and the shape of zongzi appears conical and rhombic. There is a record of "Da Tang Zongzi" in Japanese literature.

Song Dynasty: "Ai Xiang Zongzi" and "Candied Zongzi" with mugwort leaves. See Su Dongpo's poem "See Yang Meizi in Zongzi". At this time, there were also advertisements for building pavilions and wooden chariots and horses with zongzi, indicating that eating zongzi was very fashionable in the Song Dynasty.

Yuan dynasty: the wrapping material of zongzi changed from wild vegetable leaves to wild vegetable leaves, which broke through the seasonal restriction of wild vegetable leaves.

Ming Dynasty: Zongzi wrapped in reed leaves appeared, and additional materials such as bean paste, pork, pine nuts, dates and walnuts appeared, and the varieties were more colorful.

Qing Dynasty: "Ham Zongzi" appeared.

There are thousands of kinds of zongzi now, which are colorful. Nowadays, glutinous rice is usually wrapped in glutinous rice shells, but the connotation and color depend on local specialties and customs. The more famous ones are longan, meat, crystal, lotus seeds, candied fruit, chestnut, spicy, sauerkraut, ham and salted eggs.

Da Jiang nan Bei pin Ming zong

Guangdong Zongzi: Guangdong Zongzi is big and unique in shape. In addition to fresh meat zongzi and red bean paste zongzi, there are assorted zongzi with diced chicken, diced duck, barbecued pork, egg yolk, mushrooms and mung bean paste as fillings.

Minnan Zongzi: Roasted meat Zongzi and soda Zongzi in Xiamen and Quanzhou are well-known at home and abroad. The rice of roasted dumplings must be the best. Pork is pork belly. Pork is marinated and fragrant first, and mushrooms, shrimps, lotus seeds, braised pork soup and sugar are added. When eating, dip in garlic paste, mustard, red hot sauce, radish acid and other spices, sweet and smooth, oily but not greasy.

Ningbo Zongzi: Zhejiang Ningbo Zongzi is quadrangular, and its varieties include alkaline water Zongzi, red bean Zongzi and red date Zongzi. Its representative variety, Sour Water Zongzi, is made by adding a proper amount of sour water to glutinous rice and wrapping it with old yellow leaves. Glutinous rice turns pale yellow after cooking, and can be dipped in sugar, which is fragrant and delicious.

Jiaxing Zongzi: Jiaxing Zongzi is rectangular, with fresh meat, bean paste, eight treasures and other varieties. For example, in jiaozi, fresh meat, there is often a piece of fat in lean meat. After jiaozi is cooked, the fat oil seeps into the rice, which is fat but not greasy.

Beijing Zongzi: Beijing Zongzi is a representative variety of northern Zongzi, with a small head and an oblique quadrangle. In rural areas in the northern suburbs, people are used to eating rhubarb zongzi, which is sticky and fragrant, and the stuffing is mostly red dates and red bean paste.

Other famous zongzi are spicy zongzi from Sichuan and Hubei, pickled zongzi from Guizhou and salted egg zongzi from northern Jiangsu.

There are many kinds of zongzi in Shanghai.

Cantonese-style zongzi, represented by Xinghualou and Xinya, has a soft taste and a strong flavor. Its shape is flat at the bottom, square and pentagonal, with one corner facing upwards and the rest extending in all directions. There are many varieties in jiaozi, including chestnuts, fresh meat, egg yolk and mushrooms. Jiaozi has roast duck, mushrooms, chestnuts, fresh meat, egg yolk, rice kernels, etc., and others include jiaozi with alkaline water, jiaozi with bean paste, jiaozi with fresh meat, jiaozi with fresh egg yolk, and jiaozi with red beans.

The special dumplings in Huaiyang, represented by Laobanzhai and Yangzhou Hotel, are "eight flavors and eight styles", authentic "little feet" dumplings, quadrangular red dates and red beans dumplings, weight-shaped egg yolk chestnut dumplings, ingot-shaped ham dumplings, triangular douban bacon dumplings, pillow fresh meat dumplings, long pillow chicken dumplings and rhombic bean paste dumplings, all with their own characteristics.

Kutokuhayashi's mushroom dumplings, bean plate dumplings, bean paste dumplings, red bean and red date dumplings, pine nuts and white rice dumplings and arhat dumplings are all vegetarian.

The zongzi of Muslim Hong Changxing is very Muslim, with a slightly green shell, angular edges, delicate appearance and pure taste, especially the "beef zongzi", which is not available in other gangs.

Shen Dacheng, Jiaxing Zongzi Store, Wufangzhai and other traditional specialty stores supply all kinds of zongzi, such as red bean paste, fresh meat, white rice, red dates and red beans, and fresh egg yolk. Shen Dacheng pioneered curry chicken zongzi, which is colorful. All kinds of zongzi are different in variety, shape, taste and color. There are 450 grams of big zongzi wrapped in Cantonese pillows, but only 25 grams of mini zongzi.

Yangzongzi

Japanese: Zongzi is called Mao Juan and is eaten on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It is made by wrapping rice flour with bamboo leaves or bamboo leaves and growing into a cylinder.

Vietnam: Eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival. Salted dumplings are wrapped with glutinous rice, shrimp, lean meat and red beans, and half a salted egg; Alkaline zongzi is made by wrapping glutinous rice flour into a diamond shape with shredded coconut, dried shrimps and mung beans and dipping it in sugar. Fat jiaozi is wrapped with glutinous rice, pork ribs, shrimp, mung bean and spiced seasoning, cooked, peeled and sliced for eating.

Thailand: Eating zongzi, mainly sweet zongzi, during the Songkran Festival and the rainy season. It is made by soaking glutinous rice in coconut juice, adding coconut meat, black beans, taro and sweet potato, wrapping it with banana leaves, steaming and eating.

Mexico: There is a "Zongzi Festival" to celebrate the corn harvest. During the festival, every household wraps corn and beef, chicken, carrots, potatoes and peppers with banana leaves. Cook them before eating.

In addition, Costa Rica, Honduras, Peru and other countries also have the custom of eating zongzi.

What do you know about the nickname of Dragon Boat Festival?

According to statistics, the name of Dragon Boat Festival is called the most among all traditional festivals in China, reaching more than 20, which is the festival with the most aliases. For example, there are Dragon Boat Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Long Festival, Pujie Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Magnolia Festival, Zongzi Festival and so on.

Duanyang Festival is recorded in Chronicle of Jingchu Age. Because the mountain climbs in midsummer and the sun is in the sky, May is midsummer, and its first afternoon is a fine day, so May 5th is called Duanyang Festival.

Mid-Autumn Festival belongs to the branch of 12, and the fifth month of the lunar calendar is noon, which is homophonic with May and Friday, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Mid-Autumn Festival or May Festival, and in some places it is also called May Festival.

The ancients believed that May 5th, when the sun was heavy, was called "Mid-Autumn Festival".

Dragon Boat Festival is in midsummer, and it is a season with frequent skin diseases. The ancients bathed and decontaminated with Cao Lan soup. The Great Dai Li in the Han Dynasty said, "Wash blue soup in the afternoon".

When the ancients ate brown on the Dragon Boat Festival, there was a competition to compare the length of each person's leaves, and the elders won, so it was also called "Xiezong Festival".

Daughter's Day gang "Ten Thousand Miscellanies": "May Daughter's Day is a Dragon Boat Festival rope, wearing a five-poison spell. Ten thousand customs are decorated with little girls from the first day of May to the fifth day of May, and we do our best. Married women also have their own motherhood. Because it's called Daughter's Day. " Shen Bangwan's Miscellaneous Notes records: "From May 1st to 5th, the Yanjing family decorated their youngest daughter beautifully. Married women will also return to their homes in Liu Hua. This day is called Daughter's Day.

The ancients thought that "heavy noon" was a taboo day, when the five poisons were exhausted. Therefore, the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival is to drive away fishy smell and avoid poison, such as hanging calamus and mugwort leaves on the door, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Acorus Festival".