The Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, and "what to eat" and "how to celebrate the festival" have become hot topics. During the interview, the reporter learned that this festival has a tradition of avoiding plague and health care and celebrating ancestors. Wear sachets and picking herbs... In addition to zongzi, there are also other delicacies.
So, let’s take a look at what interesting knowledge and customs are there on Dragon Boat Festival?
Data picture: Zigui Dragon Boat Festival special food colorful rice dumplings. Nie Shuang Photo
How did the Dragon Boat Festival come about?
The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival covers ancient astrological culture, humanities and philosophy, and the cultural connotation is quite rich.
This festival is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. In ancient Chinese, "Dun" means beginning and beginning, and is called "Dun Wu" which is also "Five of the First Five". "Feng Tu Ji" mentions "Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival. Duan is the first one."
In addition, the ancients used the heavenly stems and earthly branches in the year. Based on this calculation, the fifth month of the lunar calendar is generally the "noon month", and the noon hour is considered "yangchen", so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Dragon Yang".
What name does it have?
As a festival with rich connotations, the Dragon Boat Festival also has many names such as the Zhongqi Festival, the Poets' Day, and the Orchid Bathing Festival.
Among them, the Dragon Boat Festival is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, with five and noon homophonic sounds, and five and five are heavy, so it is also called "Chongwu Festival" or "Chongwu Festival", and some places are also called "May Day".
The "Miscellaneous Notes of Wanshu" in the Ming Dynasty mentioned: "May Daughter's Day is a Dragon Boat Festival rope, wearing mugwort leaves and five poisonous talismans."
Data picture: Hanging mugwort. Photo by Zheng Jiayu Is
related to commemorating Qu Yuan?
In legend, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is related to Qu Yuan.
In fact, the Dragon Boat Festival customs have a rich development process, and the theme of "commemoration of ancestors" appeared around the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. At that time, the commemoration of the Dragon Boat Festival was slightly different in different places, and the statement of commemorating Qu Yuan had the greatest influence in later generations.
Some scholars also mentioned that the Dragon Boat Festival is not a sacrificial festival. As for commemorating historical figures such as Qu Yuan and Wu Zixu, whether there are legends or festivals first, there are still debates in the academic community.
Data picture: Overlook the competition of dragon boats. Guo Xu Photographed
Isn’t it a good day at first?
Initially, Dragon Boat Festival may not be an auspicious festival.
In ancient times, medical conditions were poor. As soon as the lunar month is in May, mosquitoes and flies begin to reproduce and all kinds of diseases are breeding. People are unable to deal with it, so they think that May is the poisonous month, and the fifth day of May is even more the poisonous day and evil day in the poisonous month.
At that time, many people thought that even children born on Dragon Boat Festival were not auspicious and should be thrown away. It is said that because Wang Zhene, a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was born in the Dragon Boat Festival, his grandfather named him "Zhen E". In addition, there are also sayings such as "building a house in May makes people bald".
Can you wish others a happy holiday?
It is probably because the Dragon Boat Festival was not a good day at the beginning. There was an earlier saying that you can only wish others a "healthy Dragon Boat Festival" rather than a "happy holiday".
But folk scholar Wang Juan believes that this statement has no basis and has nothing to do with "evil days". Many places in the north have Dragon Boat Festival or "Little Daughter's Day". We can wish each other happiness.
How did the Zongzi come about?
The history of Zongzi is quite long. It was also called Jiao Shu in ancient times. Later, the names such as "steamed wrap" and "white jade balls" appeared.
Data picture: Suichang Changzong. Photo by Dong Yixin
Liang Chao's "Xu Qixie Ji" records that on May 5, the Chu people used bamboo tubes to store rice and threw them into water to sacrifice to Qu Yuan. Later, because they avoided dragons stealing food, they stuffed neem leaves on the bamboo tubes and wrapped them in colorful silk.
As for the filling, there are many kinds, including meat, chestnuts, red dates, red beans, etc., some are sweet and salty. In the Song Dynasty, people also developed fruits into rice dumpling fillings, which were very delicious. What other delicacies are there in
?
Zongzi is naturally a standard food for Dragon Boat Festival. In addition, there are the "five yellows" composed of cooked garlic eggs, fragrant beef cakes, cucumbers, eels, yellow croakers, salted duck egg yolks, and realgar wine.
The most particular thing is probably the "Twelve Reds" that you like to eat in Gaoyou, which refers to fried shrimps, fried red amaranth, cinnabar tofu, etc., which sounds mouth-watering.
Data picture: "Five Yellow Banquet" is a traditional Dragon Boat Festival custom in Jiangnan. It is composed of yellow croaker, realgar wine, eel, etc., and is intended to drive away the five poisons. Zhong Sheng Take
Some places need to eat Wu Du Cakes. It is said that this is a pastry with a red poke on the top, and it has the shape of "five poisons" such as scorpions and spiders. Why do you need to tie five-color lines in
?
"Dragon Boat Racing" is one of the Dragon Boat Festival customs that people are familiar with. In addition, there are also picking herbs, hanging mugwort and calamus, worshiping gods and ancestors, raising water at noon, sheding kites, wearing sachets, etc.
For example, people often use five-color lines to tie them to children’s wrists, which are called “Dragon Boat Festival rope” or “Longevity Line”.
There are also many places where "picking mugwort to make people" during the Dragon Boat Festival, that is, using mugwort, calamus and other substances to make human form "to cure poison gas", which has the meaning of curing diseases and avoiding evil spirits and praying for peace.
What are the requirements for "avoiding the five poisons"?
The so-called "five poisons" generally refer to snakes, scorpions, centipedes, geckos, and toads. Some places also refer to centipedes among the "five poisons". In order to avoid the bites of the five poisonous insects in summer, people have come up with various solutions.
Data picture: Making mugwort sachets. Photo by Zhang Chang
Wang Juan said that for example, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the "Five Poisons" are made into paper-cut, pasted on doors, windows, walls, or tied to children's arms; or cut a gourd with the "Five Poisons" shape, indicating that the gourd is used to "suppress" them.
can also drink realgar wine, which is said to remove toxic gas after drinking.
What games were there in the ancient Dragon Boat Festival?
Entertainment is one of the elements of Dragon Boat Festival. In ancient times, without mobile phones and Internet, people were just as happy to celebrate the festival.
There are two ways to play "Fighting Grass". One is to answer each other by the name of the grass, and if you can't match, it will lose; the other is to compete with the toughness of the grass, and to win with strength.
In addition, you can also shoot willows and play polo, which is fun and strong. After the Song and Ming dynasties, in addition to giving rice dumplings and sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival, relatives and friends also used fans as festive gifts. (Reporter Shangguan Yun)
Source: China News Network
