Besides eating zongzi, what other customs are there in the Dragon Boat Festival?

Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival in China. On this day, we can see vendors selling zongzi everywhere, and the shops are full of goods for the Dragon Boat Festival. People will also buy zongzi leaves, glutinous rice and jujube in advance to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

The taste and celebration habits of eating zongzi are slightly different in every place. There are many ways to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, and the most familiar one is eating zongzi. So what are the customs besides eating zongzi and rowing dragon boats?

1, colorful rope

In ancient times, people were superstitious that the Dragon Boat Festival was the most unlucky and poisonous day of the year. Therefore, during the Dragon Boat Festival, people should tie colored ropes on children's wrists with ropes of five colors: blue, white, red, black and yellow, so as to ward off evil spirits and turn evil into good luck.

Step 2 hang wormwood

Dragon Boat Festival is the first festival in summer, with rising temperature and frequent diseases. Therefore, people usually put wormwood and calamus as one of the important contents a long time ago. Every household should sweep the yard, tie calamus and wormwood into a bundle with red paper, then insert them on the lintel and hang them in the main room. It means eliminating diseases, driving away bad luck, and making family members healthy and lucky.

3, stick five poisons

The Dragon Boat Festival is hot, and all kinds of poisonous insects flock in. In ancient times, medical conditions were relatively backward, and hot weather easily caused epidemics, so there was a custom of sticking five poisons on the Dragon Boat Festival.

Five poisons refer to five poisonous insects: scorpion, snake, gecko, centipede and toad. Sticking the Five Poisons is to draw a portrait of five poisonous insects with yellow paper, stick it on the wall, and then stick a needle on the portrait of the Five Poisons to show that it will drive away the Five Poisons.

Most of the portraits of the five poisons were drawn by special people, and then gradually evolved into printing by printing houses. Acupuncture five poisons also evolved into Zhang Tianshi holding a gourd to soothe the five poisons. Although sticking five poisons is superstition, such small activities can make people feel the festive atmosphere best.

Step 4 eat "five whites"

During the Dragon Boat Festival, the "five whites" are also popular among the people, that is, boiled meat, white garlic, boiled chicken, white tofu and water bamboo. Eating "Huang Wu" on Dragon Boat Festival with "Five Whites" can clear away heat and reduce fire, and strengthen the spleen and stomach.

Chinese medicine believes that yang is the most vigorous in the Dragon Boat Festival. If you eat "Huang Wu" and "Five Whites" at noon, you can not only get rid of the five poisons, but also use the power of "Yang" in the Dragon Boat Festival to restrain and eliminate many bad luck and enhance your "essence, essence, qi and blood".

Step 5 eat tea and eggs

In Nanchang, Jiangxi, tea eggs and salted eggs are boiled during the Dragon Boat Festival. Eggs include eggs, duck eggs and goose eggs. The eggshell is painted red, packed in colorful net bags and hung around the child's neck, which means wishing the child good luck and safety.

6. Withdrawal amount

Dragon Boat Festival seems to be a festival tailored for children. Many of its customs are related to children, and so is the amount of paintings. The so-called forehead painting is to write the word "Wang" on a child's forehead with realgar wine.

The Chronicle of Yanjing records: "From the first day of the first lunar month, realgar is sprinkled with wine and applied to the collar, nose and ears of children to avoid poison."

Adults regard it as a mascot to exorcise evil spirits, while children regard it as a game. There is an ancient poem that says, "Only when I was a child can I forget to hold Aipu's forehead." For children, painting their foreheads is also a precious memory.

7. Eat a vermicelli

In Minqin County, Gansu Province, vermicelli is steamed during the Dragon Boat Festival. The noodle fan is steamed with hair noodles, which is fan-shaped and has five layers. Each layer is sprinkled with ground cooked peppers, and the surface is kneaded into various patterns and dyed, which is very beautiful. This diet custom is said to have evolved from the custom of making, selling and sending fans on the Dragon Boat Festival.

8. Order realgar wine

Soak realgar in wine, and then apply realgar wine on people's forehead, ears, nose, palms, etc., in order to stay away from poisonous insects, eliminate disasters and prevent diseases.

9. Eat cake

Dragon Boat Festival is also a grand festival for Korean people in Yanbian, Jilin Province. The most representative food on this day is sweet cake. Making a cake is to put mugwort and glutinous rice in a big wooden trough chiseled with a single wood and beat it with a long-handled mallet.

10, herbalism

Dragon Boat Festival is the most prosperous day of the year in the impression of the ancients. It is generally believed that this day's medicinal herbs have the best medicinal properties, so there is a custom of collecting herbs.

This custom is recorded in Xia Zheng Xiao: "Store medicine today to get rid of poisonous gas." The medicine used in Dragon Boat Festival is mostly wormwood, but there are also places where toads are caught and used as medicine. In some areas in the south, there is also the custom of making toad venom.

Because there are many herbs collected during the Dragon Boat Festival, the custom of hanging herbs, fighting grass and Mulan soup is derived. Hanging herbs, as the name implies, is hanging herbs on the door. People usually hang three kinds of herbs: wormwood, calamus and garlic.

These three herbs are also recorded in Jia Qinglu: "Cutting cattails as swords, cutting canopies as whips, and hanging garlic with peach stalks on the bed are all used to exorcise ghosts."

Dragon Boat Festival is a valuable historical wealth. As future generations, we should inherit the excellent traditional culture and carry forward the traditional festivals in China, such as "Hundred Herbs Battle" and "Shooting Willow", which will not only enrich our lives, but also help to inherit the traditional culture in China. Therefore, for the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival, we should strive to "let a hundred flowers blossom" and avoid "outshine others", which is the guarantee for the eternal vitality of the Dragon Boat Festival.