What is the Dragon Boat Festival and what is its origin?
Introduction: Our country is a typical traditional country with rich traditional festivals and traditional cultural heritage. The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the traditional festivals. So how much do you know about it? Let’s follow the editor to learn about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival has been one of the most important traditional festivals throughout the ages, with a series of folk customs such as dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings. Today, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the world's cultural intangible heritage that my country has applied for.What is the Dragon Boat Festival?The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year. According to the "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji", because people climb high places in midsummer when the sun is in the sky, and May is midsummer, its first noon is the day for climbing high places in the sky, so the fifth day of May is also called the "Dragon Boat Festival." In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Midday Festival, May Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Bathing Orchid Festival, Poets Festival", etc. The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional cultural festival popular in China and other countries in the Chinese cultural circle.The Dragon Boat Festival originated in China. It was originally a totem sacrifice festival held by tribes who worshipped the dragon totem in the ancient Baiyue region (the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the area to the south). Before the Spring and Autumn Period in the Baiyue region, there was a custom of holding tribal totem sacrifices in the form of dragon boat races on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Later, because the poet Qu Yuan from the Chu State (now Hubei) during the Warring States Period committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo River with a stone in his arms on that day, the rulers used the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan in order to establish a label of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism; some areas also use the term "Dragon Boat Festival" to commemorate Wu Zixu and Cao E. The Dragon Boat Festival is known as one of the four major traditional festivals of the Chinese folk, along with the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival. Since ancient times, the Dragon Boat Festival has included festival activities such as dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings. Since 2008, the Dragon Boat Festival has been listed as a national statutory holiday. In May 2006, the State Council included it in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list; in September 2009, UNESCO formally reviewed and approved the inclusion of China's Dragon Boat Festival in the World Intangible Cultural Heritage, making it the first Chinese festival to be selected as a world intangible cultural heritage. What is the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival?1. Commemorating Qu Yuan.This theory first appeared in the records of "Continued Records of the Strange Things in Qi Dynasty" by Wu Jun of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties and "Records of the Sui Shi in Jingchu" by Zong Jing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. It is said that Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and was trapped by a mosquito dragon after his death. People mourned him and threw five-colored silk rice dumplings into the water on this day every year to drive away the dragon. It is also said that after Qu Yuan jumped into the Miluo River, local people immediately rowed boats to rescue him, and they went all the way to Dongting Lake, but they never found Qu Yuan's body. At that time, it was a rainy day, and the small boats on the lake gathered together near the pavilion on the shore. When people learned that they were trying to salvage the loyal minister Qu Yuan, they went out again in the rain, scrambling to row into the vast Dongting Lake. In order to express their grief, people rowed boats on rivers and lakes, and this gradually developed into dragon boat racing. It seems that eating zongzi and dragon boat racing on the Dragon Boat Festival are related to commemorating Qu Yuan, as evidenced by the Tang Dynasty poet Wen Xiu's poem "Dragon Boat Festival": "Who said that the Dragon Boat Festival is a festival? It has been rumored for thousands of years to be for Qu Yuan. It is laughable that the vast Chu River is empty and cannot wash away the injustice of a loyal minister."2. The theory of welcoming the God of Waves.This statement comes from the "Cao E Stele" of the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Zixu, a loyal minister of the State of Wu, died unjustly and turned into a wave god. People mourned and offered sacrifices to him, thus the Dragon Boat Festival was established.3. The Dragon Festival Theory.This statement comes from Wen Yiduo's "A Study of the Dragon Boat Festival" and "Historical Education of the Dragon Boat Festival". He believes that the fifth day of May is the day when the "dragon" tribes in the ancient Wu and Yue regions held totem worship services for their ancestors. The main reasons are: (1) The two main activities of the Dragon Boat Festival are eating rice dumplings and dragon boat racing, both of which are related to dragons. Zongzi thrown into the water are often stolen by dragons, while dragon boats are used for racing. (2) Dragon Boat Races were closely related to the ancient Wu and Yue regions. Moreover, the people of Wu and Yue had the custom of cutting their hair and tattooing themselves to look like dragon sons. (3) In ancient times, there was a folk custom of tying "five-colored silk on the arm" on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. This should be a relic of the custom of tattooing "like a dragon son".4. The evil day theory.According to the "Records of the Grand Historian", Mengchangjun Tian Wen was born on the fifth day of the fifth month. His father asked his mother to abandon Tian Wen on the grounds that a child born on this day would kill his father. The Eastern Han Dynasty's "Customs and Meanings" also has the saying that "If a child is born on May 5th, a boy will harm his father, and a girl will harm her mother." Wang Zhen'e, a great general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was born on the fifth day of the fifth month, and his grandfather named him "Zhen'e". Song Huizong Zhao Jue was born on the fifth day of the fifth month and was fostered outside the palace since childhood. It can be seen that it was a common phenomenon in ancient times to regard the fifth day of May as an unlucky day. In this way, it is natural to insert calamus and mugwort to drive away ghosts, fumigate with atractylodes and angelica, and drink realgar wine to avoid epidemics on this day.5. Summer solstice theory.Liu Deqian, who holds this view, put forward three main reasons in "Another Theory on the Origin of the Dragon Boat Festival" and "Interesting Talks on Chinese Traditional Festivals": (1) The authoritative work on seasonal festivals, "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji", did not mention the festival custom of eating rice dumplings on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, but wrote about eating rice dumplings during the summer solstice festival. As for dragon boat racing, "Yuzhu Baodian" written by Du Taiqing of the Sui Dynasty classified it as an entertainment activity on the summer solstice, which shows that it was not necessarily for the purpose of salvaging the great poet Qu Yuan who jumped into the river. (2) Some contents of the Dragon Boat Festival customs, such as "stepping on hundreds of herbs", "fighting hundreds of herbs", "picking various herbs", etc., actually have nothing to do with Qu Yuan. (3) The first explanation of the Dragon Boat Festival in the famous book "Sui Hua Ji" about seasonal customs is: "The sun is at its highest point in the sun, and it is midsummer." That is, the Dragon Boat Festival is in the middle of summer, so the Dragon Boat Festival can also be called Tianzhong Festival. From this, it can be seen that the earliest origin of the Dragon Boat Festival should be the summer solstice.Summary: Through the above article, we have a deeper understanding of the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. I hope you will like the above article, and I hope you will have a better understanding and love of traditional culture! |
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