What are the customs of Dragon Boat Festival? Is it different in different places?

There is the Dragon Boat Festival every year, but the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival are different all over the country.

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, which is an ancient and important traditional festival of the Han people in China with a history of more than 2,000 years.

There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, among which the theory of commemorating the patriotic poet Qu Yuan has the widest and deepest influence and occupies the mainstream position.

Qu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC) was an aristocrat of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period, the first great patriotic poet in the history of China, and the founder of China's romantic literature. He was a minister in Chu State, and advocated the appointment of talents, the cultivation of laws and regulations, and the joint efforts against Qin. But was ostracized and exiled. In 278 BC, the State of Qin destroyed the State of Chu, and Qu Yuan was filled with grief and indignation. On the fifth day of May, Shi Huai sank into the Miluo River and died.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were so sad that they flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to Qu Yuan. The fisherman paddled the boat and fished his body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out rice balls, eggs and other foods prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river, so that fish and shrimp would not bite Qu Yuan when they were full. People followed suit after seeing it. An old doctor took an altar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying that he would stun the dragon water beast with medicine so as not to hurt Dr. Qu. Since then, on the fifth day of May every year, there has been the custom of dragon boat racing, eating zongzi and drinking realgar wine to commemorate Qu Yuan.

In 2006, the "China Dragon Boat Festival", which consists of the custom of Qu Yuan's hometown in Zigui County, Hubei Province, the "Cisse Shenzhou Club" in Huangshi City, the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival on the Miluo River in Miluo City, Hunan Province, and the custom of Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. In 2009, UNESCO formally considered and approved the inclusion of China Dragon Boat Festival in the world intangible cultural heritage, becoming the first festival in China to be included in the world intangible cultural heritage.

Qu Yuan's hometown is a memorial service for a song.

Zigui County, Hubei Province is the hometown of Qu Yuan and the birthplace of the customs and culture of the Dragon Boat Festival. For thousands of years, the people of Zigui have formed a unique seasonal festival custom in memory of Qu Yuan, namely the Dragon Boat Festival custom in Qu Yuan's hometown.

The folk custom of Zigui Dragon Boat Festival is magical and unique. Locals begin to prepare for the Dragon Boat Festival from the end of April in the lunar calendar. In May every year, locals celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival three times: on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month; May 15 is the Dragon Boat Festival; On May 25th, after the Dragon Boat Festival, the whole of May was filled with the fragrance of zongzi and mugwort leaves.

"The Dragon Boat Festival is bigger than the previous year, and the girl goes back to her family." It is another important custom of the Dragon Boat Festival for married women to take their husbands and children back to their parents' homes, which is called "hiding from the sun" by the people. Legend has it that after Qu Yuan was exiled to his hometown, his sister came back to comfort Qu Yuan. "Qu Yuan has a virtuous sister who heard about the original exile and came back because of her name." Married women in the same town follow the example of Qu Jie and return to their parents' homes, which has been preserved to this day.

In Lepingli, the birthplace of the poet Qu Yuan, there is still a folk poetry organization "Sao Tan", whose members are mainly farmers who love poetry. The theme of poetry is to mourn Qu Yuan and eulogize the era, which is known as "the first peasant poetry society in China". Every year, during the Dragon Boat Festival in May when Ai Zongxiang is fragrant, there is always a poetry meeting in Lepingli. The peasant poets of Sao Tan Poetry Society gathered in Quyuan Temple to sing their own poems with the local accent of Quyuan's hometown and pay tribute to Quyuan with their Sao poems. This cultural custom has been handed down from generation to generation and has become a unique humanistic tradition and landscape in Leping.

During the Dragon Boat Festival, dragon boats are rowed in many places, but it is unique to Qu Yuan's hometown to hold a ceremony to swim across the river before the dragon boat. Legend has it that the news of Qu Yuan's plunge into the river reached Qu Yuan's hometown. Qu Yuan's sister Gu Yao was heartbroken, rowed a boat and brought back her soul along the river, sobbing blood and singing "My brother, yo-yo-oh-". The villagers were also very sad, and they took boats and swam with her to arouse Qu Yuan's soul, hoping that Qu Yuan's soul would return to his hometown. From then on, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the mournful "Soul-calling Song" will always shake people's hearts again and again, and it will become a reserved project in Qu Yuan's hometown to commemorate Qu Yuan-swimming in the river to summon souls.

It is a custom in many places to eat palm seed on the Dragon Boat Festival, but in Qu Yuan's hometown, it is also a custom to throw palm seed into the river while swimming. According to legend, when the villagers salvaged Qu Yuan's body, they threw zongzi into the river one by one, so that the ichthyosaurs, shrimps and crabs could eat enough to prevent fish and shrimps from eating into Qu Yuan's body. In Zigui, Zongzi entrusted the villagers' yearning and reverence for Qu Yuan. Green leaves mean that Qu Yuan will last forever, white glutinous rice means that Qu Yuan is pure as jade, and angular means that Qu Yuan is upright and upright. Red dates represent Qu Yuan's patriotism.

At the end of the Dragon Boat Festival on May 25th, there will be rice fields for entertainment in Zigui. At the end of midnight, family members get together, relatives and friends get together and celebrate the summer harvest. One or several families take the lead in inviting villagers and neighbors to entertain themselves, dancing in the Flower Drum Opera, singing folk songs, playing percussion ensemble, rowing dragon boats and playing with lions. , often stay up all night. At the same time, at the end of the Dragon Boat Festival, there is also the activity of "sending a ship to God". At this point, the Zigui Dragon Boat Festival officially ended.

Cisse Dragon Boat Festival China Club

Every year from the eighth day of April to the eighteenth day of May in the lunar calendar, the villagers in Daoshifu Village, Xisaishan District, Huangshi City, Hubei Province spontaneously organize themselves to participate in a traditional folk cultural activity-the Cissaishenzhou Festival. The core theme of this activity is to eliminate epidemic, evil, disaster, disease, peace, health and longevity. Mainly through the form of "sending to China" to pray for the people to eliminate disasters and mourn Qu Yuan.

The main activities of the Cisse Shenzhou Club include a series of ceremonies and activities, such as offering sacrifices, cruising and sending Shenzhou into the water. From the foundation laying ceremony of the Dragon Boat Festival, the production of the Shenzhou Tour, to the opening of the Shenzhou Tour by Taoist priests on May 5, and then to the official session of the Shenzhou Tour Club from May 15 to 18, the whole event lasted for 40 days, which was a long-term blessing and hanging activity for the Dragon Boat Festival in China.

The core of Shenzhou Society is Shenzhou, bearing 108 ship gods, who come from heaven, underworld, celestial world, society, nature and other aspects, including Qu Yuan, empress, land god, water god, twelve flowers god, chicken, duck, tiger and horse. There is no distinction between Cisse people's belief in God and there is no portal. These statues began to be made on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, until they boarded the Shenzhou River on the 18th of the fifth lunar month, which always entrusted the psychological demands of Cisse people on the Dragon Boat Festival. The most important ship god on Shenzhou is the "Black Lord".

"Black Lord" is the local protector, the first god of the ship god and the first god of the mountain god. Since the eighth day of April, he has been worshipped by Cisse people as the Lord of the land, the bane of plague and the savior of farming. Every year, on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the Cisse Shenzhou Association will hold a ceremony of "banning", which will take all the evil poison of spring into the pockets of the black master, and then invite him to the Shenzhou Palace for worship. On the 15th day of the fifth lunar month, Cisse people invited 107 gods, such as "Black Lord", to China in the sound of incense burning, blessing and chanting.

At 8: 00 a.m. on May 16th of the lunar calendar, Shenzhou will go out for a military parade. Every household should hang calamus and mugwort leaves at the door, set up incense tables and candles at the door, and place offerings such as wine, tea, rice and fruit. Every time they go to a house, the villagers will greet them with whips, scatter MC Davi and pay homage. On the evening of May 17 of the lunar calendar, 48 ever-burning lamps were lit for Shenzhou to keep vigil all night. On the morning of May 18th of the lunar calendar, the Shenzhou Palace left the palace, and Taoist priests and all members of the Shenzhou Association made a way for the Shenzhou Palace. 16 young men carried the Shenzhou Palace down the river and let the water carry the dragon boat down the river into the eastern sea. Those "spring epidemics and all kinds of poisons" will be escorted by the gods of 108, far away from Cisse and the world, while the villagers will put their hands together and bow down to China to pray for happiness and well-being for a year.

During the Olympic bid, the mass cultural activities were colorful, and the pavilions, carved beams and painted buildings were exquisite, magnificent, unique and of high artistic value, which had a great influence in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Miluo Dragon Boat Race

There is a rich, unique and mysterious custom of the Dragon Boat Festival along the Miluo River, which is distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Miluo River Basin in Miluo City, Hunan Province. The Dragon Boat Festival along the Miluo River generally begins on the first day of the fifth lunar month and ends on the fifteenth. The whole festival has a long history, broad masses, rich diversity, rich culture, high enthusiasm for participation and far-reaching influence. Besides holding banquets, eating zongzi, hanging calamus with mugwort, drinking realgar wine and racing dragon boats, carving dragon heads, stealing Shenmu, launching dragon boats, worshiping temples, Dragon Boat Festival and offering sacrifices have mysterious ceremonies and unique cultural connotations.

Miluo artificial dragon boat, the main wood (commonly known as keel) at the bottom of the boat will be stolen. Because stealing wood is called Shenmu, the boat paddles fast. Whenever wood stored in a big house or the home of a timber merchant is found, shipbuilders work in groups of four in the middle of the night. While the host was not looking, the two men suddenly carried the wood on their shoulders. The third man quickly tied a red cloth strip in the middle of the wood, indicating that the wood was used for dragon boats. The fourth wood thief hid in front of the house. After the person in front has left 100 meters, light the firecrackers in his hand to arouse the owner to catch up. The owner knew that his wood had been stolen to make keel wood, and he exulted in his heart and stopped chasing after running for a few steps.

To carve the dragon head, we should choose high-quality camphor wood. The sculptor invited by Dragon Bow Company bathes and burns incense, worships the sky, and chooses an auspicious day to start carving the dragon head. The sculptor should start his work quickly and well. The place where the dragon head is carved is a restricted area, and no one is allowed to peep. After the completion of the faucet, a celebration ceremony will be held, and then the first division will be responsible for worshipping the faucet, arranging tea, wine and fruit, and burning incense all day.

To build a dragon boat, we should also choose an auspicious day and hold a wood-making ceremony. Generally speaking, the time to deliver wood is at midnight, and making dragon boats is not as mysterious as carving dragon heads. However, it should be forbidden to send wood, and other idle people are not allowed to be present except the first secretary and helper. The speed of building dragon boats is very fast, usually no more than three days, sometimes one day and one night. People who take part in dragon boat making, except the master who collects bags and a bucket of rice, don't need to be paid. They have to eat by themselves and take the initiative to do things. Blacksmiths have to donate their nails, which embodies a spirit of selflessness, fearlessness, unity and friendship.

On the first day of May, before the dragon boat was launched, all obstacles on the road were removed on the first day, and all personnel should avoid it to ensure unimpeded. First, a young unmarried man who is familiar with water picked up the tap and ran quickly until he rushed to the middle of the river. He picked up the faucet, made homage to the five parties, and called it the faucet bath. After that, the person carrying the faucet swam back to the shallow water on the shore and put the faucet on the dragon boat. The rower lifted the boat by hand and the boat rushed into the river. The rower sat on the boat again and rowed the dragon boat to the temple.

Chaomiao, also known as Chaoxiang, has two meanings in the local area: one is sacrifice, and the other is Dragon Boat Festival. Only the leader who participates in the pilgrimage can get the blessing of Qu Yuan, row safely and win the race.

Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival eliminates evil spirits

In Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the largest annual folk festivals, with a set of folk activities adapted to local natural climate conditions, daily production and living habits, and economic and cultural characteristics. Although some activities are not much different from the Dragon Boat Festival activities in other places, their details reflect Suzhou's unique water town customs.

Around the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather turned hot, and "a hundred insects came out and evil spirits flourished". Especially in southern Jiangsu, it is rainy season and the air is humid, which is suitable for the growth and reproduction of various bacteria and pathogens, and infectious diseases are also easy to spread. Therefore, before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, people hung mugwort leaves and calamus on doors to ward off evil spirits, or mixed Ai Chen, Rhizoma Atractylodis, Radix Angelicae Dahuricae and Realgar to smoke in indoor courtyards, or sprayed limewater and Realgar on damp corners of walls to make mosquitoes and flies escape when they smelled the smell. Others mixed realgar powder with wine and smeared it on children's foreheads, hands and feet. This custom is called "painting forehead" and it is also for exorcism. People with wells will also throw a piece of realgar wrapped in silk wool into the well to remove the poison in the water.

In fact, realgar is a mineral, which is warm, bitter and toxic, and is mainly used for detoxification and insecticidal. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that realgar is effective in treating scabies and snake bites.

The sachet is also called sachet, sachet and wallet. It is a custom in Suzhou to wear sachets on Dragon Boat Festival.

In the past, embroidered sachet was a very important embroidery. On the eve of Dragon Boat Festival, women in boudoir should make preparations early, design novel ornaments on their sachets and skillfully add embroidery. There are auspicious patterns such as flowers, animals and beasts, and the shapes are diverse. Realgar is commonly used in sachets, and other Chinese medicines such as Atractylodes macrocephala, Angelica dahurica, Acorus calamus and Borneolum Syntheticum are also added. After the Dragon Boat Festival, old sachets will be thrown away to drive away the plague. Wearing sachets on Dragon Boat Festival is a folk custom, which can decorate and embellish the festive atmosphere. At the same time, it also has practical functions such as fragrance, insect repellent, plague prevention and disease prevention. This is a scientific method to prevent plague. In summer, various infectious diseases become popular. In order to ensure children's health, the ancients made sachets with traditional Chinese medicine and tied them on children's skirts and shoulders, which can play a very good preventive role.

Zongzi is the most representative food of the Dragon Boat Festival, and every household should make zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival. Compared with jiaozi in the north, jiaozi in the south of the Yangtze River is less sweet and more salty. The most representative ones are fresh meat dumplings, bacon dumplings, egg yolk dumplings, ham dumplings and so on.

Besides eating zongzi, another representative diet of Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival is "Huang Wu"-yellow croaker, cucumber, eel, realgar wine and duck egg yolk.

Speaking of the custom of eating "Huang Wu" on Suzhou Dragon Boat Festival, it is also because these ingredients are seasonal: Monopterus albus and yellow croaker are the best in this season, and local cucumbers are the best when they are first on the market in summer. Salted duck egg yolk is the best porridge for Suzhou people in summer. Suzhou people have always had the habit of "eating from time to time"-for example, in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Suzhou people want to eat green dumplings, which is the most suitable time to make green dumplings. Eat black rice on the eighth day of April, which is also the most important raw material, the most tender season of black rice leaves; Drink winter wine on the solstice of winter, because osmanthus, one of the raw materials, is only available in winter. ...

Since ancient times, people in China have advocated the idea of "harmony between man and nature". People want to return to nature and be integrated with it, and food is no exception.