The historical origin of Dragon Boat Festival The origin of Dragon Boat Festival

Introduction: Dragon Boat Festival is a festival to eat zongzi, which is almost everyone's cognition. So little is known about the historical origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. In order to let everyone know more about the Dragon Boat Festival, the following is the origin story I brought with me. Let's go and have a look.

Dragon Boat Festival originated from the worship of astronomical phenomena and evolved from the ancient Dragon Boat Festival. On the midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, the black dragon spent seven nights in the sky, which is the day of the dragonfly. As the fifth poem in The Book of Changes and the Melon says, "The dragon is in the sky". At noon, Long Xing is both a "win" and a "right" and a symbol of good luck.

Dragon Boat Festival, originally founded by ancestors in the south, is a festival to worship the ancestors of dragons. It is said that Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu State in the Warring States Period, jumped into the Miluo River on May 5th and committed suicide. Later, people also took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. There are also sayings in memory of Wu Zixu, Cao E and meson push. Generally speaking, the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the ancient ancestors' choice of "Dragon Ascending to Heaven" as an auspicious day to worship the dragon ancestors, and injected the seasonal fashion of "eliminating diseases and preventing epidemics" in summer. Dragon Boat Festival is considered as an "evil moon day", which originated in the northern part of the Central Plains to commemorate Qu Yuan and other historical figures. The formation of the Dragon Boat Festival custom can be said to be the product of the integration of North and South customs.

The word "Dragon Boat Festival" first appeared in the local chronicles of the Western Jin Dynasty: "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival is also called May 5, which is the same as the summer solstice." Duan, which means beginning and beginning in ancient Chinese, is called "Dragon Boat Festival", that is, "the fifth day". Shuowen Jiezi: "Duan is also the subject of the birth of all things", which means that "Duan" means the beginning, so the fifth day of May is called "Dragon Boat Festival". "Guangji at the Age of Years" said: "The dust people in the capital take the first day of May as the first end, the second day as the second end, and the number is even five." The ancients used to call the first few days of May end to end. Therefore, the first afternoon in May is called Dragon Boat Festival. But the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival have existed for a long time, such as dragon boat racing and sacrifice.

The ancients took heavenly stems and earthly branches as the carrier, and the heavens and the earth supported the way of the earth, and set up heavenly stems and earthly branches to contract the fate of heaven and earth. Ancient people used heavenly stems and earthly branches to represent calendar year, calendar month, calendar day and calendar time. According to the calendar, according to the order of the twelve earthly branches, May is called "noon month" and noon day is called "heavy noon", so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duanyang".

At the beginning of the Dragon Boat Festival, it mainly spread in southern wuyue, and appeared in the form of "totem sacrifice". Ancient ancestors took "dragon" as a totem and chose to sacrifice on the Dragon Boat Festival, which was actually a festival to worship the ancestors of the dragon at that time.

Legend of Dragon Boat Festival: In Memory of Qu Yuan

According to the history book Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng, Qu Yuan (about 339 BC-about 278 BC) and Danyang (now Zigui, Yichang, Hubei) were ministers in the Spring and Autumn Period. Qu Yuan's real name is Ping, but his surname is Mi, not Qu.

According to legend, Qu Yuan advocated using talents and empowering people to make them rich, and urged them to unite against Qin, which was strongly opposed by others. Qu Yuan was deposed, expelled from the capital, and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang river basins. During his exile, he wrote poems such as Li Sao, Tian Wen, Jiu Ge and so on, which were concerned about the country and the people. In 278 BC, Qin Jun invaded Kyoto, Chu. Qu Yuan was heartbroken to see his motherland being invaded, but he was reluctant to give up his motherland. On May 5th, after he wrote his last poem "Huai Sha", he plunged into the Miluo River and wrote a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life. [53] After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the local people immediately rowed for rescue. In order to mourn, people rowed on rivers, and later it gradually developed into a dragon boat race. People were afraid that fish in the river would eat his body, so they went home and threw rice balls into the river to prevent fish and shrimp from ruining Qu Yuan's body. Later, eating zongzi became a custom.

According to literature records, the myth novel Continued Harmony written by Wu Yun of Southern Liang Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties first linked Qu Yuan to the Dragon Boat Festival. At this time, Qu Yuan has been dead for more than 750 years. It can be seen from the lost text of Customs Tong (written by Ying Shao at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty) copied by Ou Yangxun in the Tang Dynasty that Qu Yuan was already in the folklore of the Dragon Boat Festival when Xu Dong, the emperor gaozu, died more than 400 years ago. Although many Dragon Boat Festival customs have nothing to do with Qu Yuan, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been deeply rooted in people's hearts for thousands of years, so people "cherish it as filial piety, tell it to the world and spread it to the Tao". Therefore, the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan has the widest and deepest influence and occupies the mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, China people associate dragon boat racing and eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival with commemorating Qu Yuan.

What activities are there on the Dragon Boat Festival?

The Dragon Boat Festival is a mixture of various folk customs, such as avoiding evil spirits and epidemic prevention, so some people think that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the ancient people's festival of "avoiding evil spirits and epidemic prevention". China has a long history and profound culture, and ancient festivals are an important carrier of traditional culture. The formation of ancient festivals contains profound and rich cultural connotations. Ancient festivals attach importance to the belief in ancestor gods and sacrificial activities, and the belief in ancestor gods is the core of ancient traditional festivals. It is not a folk festival passed down from generation to generation to avoid evil and prevent epidemic. Dragon Boat Festival originated from the ancient saying of "avoiding evil and preventing epidemic", which is a misunderstanding of the cultural connotation of ancient festivals by later generations. Ancestor worship not only covers all the ancient traditional festivals in China, but also is the eternal theme of folk festivals in China. With regard to the greetings of the Dragon Boat Festival, most folklore experts believe that only after the Dragon Boat Festival can legends and historical figures be attached to the festival and given other meanings, but these meanings are only part of the Dragon Boat Festival. Many ancient poems describe the festive atmosphere of the Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon Boat Festival has been a festive day for eating zongzi and picking dragon boats since ancient times. In the ancient Dragon Boat Festival, the lively dragon boat show and the joyful food feast were all manifestations of celebrating the festival. Happy Dragon Boat Festival is a tradition. Dragon Boat Festival is a good day. According to the chronology of Jingchu's age, it is midsummer now, and May is midsummer. Its first afternoon is a good day to climb mountains and enjoy sunny weather. "

In traditional festivals, there are many and varied folk customs, or only the Dragon Boat Festival can be compared with the Spring Festival. Both festivals have rituals and customs such as praying for good fortune and eliminating disasters, which places people's desire to welcome good fortune and pray for good fortune and ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters. The Dragon Boat Festival has integrated a variety of folk customs in its historical development and evolution. There are many customs of Dragon Boat Festival, with various forms, rich and colorful contents, and lively and festive. Due to different regional cultures, the content or details of customs vary from place to place in China. The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival mainly include dragon boat picking, Dragon Boat Festival, herb picking, hanging wormwood and calamus, ancestor worship, washing herbal water, drinking water at noon, soaking in dragon boats, eating zongzi, flying kites, tying colorful silk thread, smoking Atractylodes lancea and wearing sachets. Dragon boat is very popular in the southern coastal areas of China. Since it spread abroad, it has been deeply loved by people of all countries and formed an international competition. The custom of eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival has been popular all over China since ancient times, and it has become one of the most influential and widespread folk food customs of the Chinese nation. Performing traditional folk activities during the Dragon Boat Festival can not only enrich people's spiritual and cultural life, but also inherit and carry forward traditional culture. As an important part of China traditional culture, Dragon Boat Festival culture embodies the long history and profoundness of China culture. Dragon Boat Festival culture has a wide influence in the world, and some countries and regions in the world also celebrate it.