“What is the traditional festival with the most aliases in our country?” “When is the earliest and the latest Dragon Boat Festival?” “Dragon Boat Festival to avoid the ‘five poisons’ refers to which’ five poisons’?” “Which Chinese festival is the first to be included in the World intangible cultural Heritage?” … The annual Dragon Boat Festival is coming, when you eat zongzi, insert Puai, wear incense bags, have you ever thought about these problems?
Luo Shuwei, a historian and researcher of Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival, which is one of the ancient festivals of the Chinese nation with a history of more than 2,000 years.
According to research, the Dragon Boat Festival originated in the middle reaches of the ancient Yangtze River to the dragon as a totem of the Yue ethnic group, each year on the fifth day of the lunar calendar, they will hold a grand “totem festival” to express its “dragon son” identity. Later, according to their own historical and cultural characteristics, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival has made different interpretations, such as commemorating Jie Zitui, commemorating Wu Zixu, commemorating Cao E, from the “summer solstice”, etc., and the most widely spread is to commemorate Qu Yuan, and make Qu Yuan become one of the few historical figures in our country to commemorate the festival.
In China’s traditional festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival has nearly 30 aliases, can be called the most aliases of the festival, such as the Duanyang Festival, Double festival, May Festival, noon festival, bathing orchid Festival, calamus Festival, women’s Day, Dragon Boat Festival, dragon Day festival, day festival, festival, duck festival, when the five flood, understand Zongzi festival, Zongzi Festival, Qu Yuan, poet’s Festival.
“A hundred miles of different wind, a thousand miles of different customs. The Dragon Boat Festival has many nicknames, indicating the diverse and complex origin of the Dragon Boat Festival custom. For example, zongzi was originally seasonal food, to the Jin Dynasty as Dragon Boat Festival food; Dragon-boat racing is not limited to the central and southern regions. There was the custom of dragon-boat racing in Tianjin during the Qing Dynasty.” Luo Shuwei said.
Since the Dragon Boat Festival originates from the lunar calendar, its date in the Gregorian calendar is not fixed. “Corresponding to the solar calendar, the earliest is May 27 (as in 2085) and the latest is June 26 (as in 1906). Therefore, it is normal for the Dragon Boat Festival to fall on any day from May 27 to June 26 in the Gregorian calendar.” Luo Shuwei said.
Since the Warring States period, the northern folk have the lunar month of May as “bad month” and the fifth day as “bad day”, that “Dragon Boat Festival to the five poison wake up”. What are the “Five poisons”? It refers to snakes, scorpions, centipedes, geckos and toads.
“In order to avoid the ‘five poisons’, people on the Dragon Boat Festival day to insert Puai, incense bags, LAN tang bath, the purpose is to do a good job of personal hygiene and environmental hygiene, to avoid pests hurt, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also regarded as China’s earliest’ health and epidemic prevention Festival ‘and’ medicine and health Festival ‘.” Luo Shuwei said.
In order to arouse the people to rethink the cultural forms and values created by their ancestors, and promote the scientific and standardized rescue and protection of cultural heritage, China has been actively promoting some traditional festivals to declare the world intangible cultural heritage.
“The Dragon Boat Festival occupies an indispensable position in China’s traditional cultural festivals and has a deep influence in the world.” In 2009, UNESCO officially approved the Dragon Boat Festival to be included in the Representative list of the intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity, becoming the first festival in China to be included in the World intangible Cultural Heritage. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is of great historical and practical significance.”