Chapter 30 Section 5 Dragon Boat Festival and Summer Solstice Festival

The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, a grand traditional folk festival in my country.There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. The more common one is that the festival originated in commemoration of Qu Yuan.According to "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji", during the Warring States period, Qu Yuan, a doctor of Chu, was slandered and exiled by the king of Chu to the south of the Yangtze River. When Qin general Baiqi occupied Ying (yingying), the capital of Chu, he felt that the mountains and rivers were broken and he was old and weak. Powerless to save the motherland from peril, he wanted to wake up the bewildered king of Chu with death, so he jumped into the Mi [mi Mi] Luo River and died on the fifth day of May.To commemorate him, the people of Chu State raced dragon boats to save Qu Yuan on this day, thus forming a traditional festival.Others believe that the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival with text to be tested should be the Summer Solstice Festival.Certain customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as dragon boat races, eating zongzi, and tying red threads, are all customs of the original Summer Solstice Festival.However, people attached Qu Yuan's deeds to the Dragon Boat Festival, making this patriotic poet associated with the Dragon Boat Festival, which made the festival have a greater impact.After the Tang Dynasty, the Dragon Boat Festival was designated as one of the three major festivals in the lunar calendar, and the emperor often rewarded his officials on this day.

There are many customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, but eating zongzi is a custom that is generally popular and has been passed down to this day.The "Wind Shangji" of the Zhou Dynasty in the Western Jin Dynasty said: "Dragon Boat Festival in midsummer, cook the horned millet." The "corner millet" mentioned here is the zongzi wrapped with millet.Millet has been a major crop in northern my country since ancient times.In the pre-Qin period, people not only used millet as staple food, but also used millet to brew fine wine, so millet occupied a special position in people's dietary life at that time.In ancient times, the dependence on millet led to the worship of millet by the ancestors, which is the plant worship in primitive religion.The way of worship is the annual millet sacrifice ceremony.According to the "Book of Rites Yueling", millet was already an offering to worship ancestors and gods in the Western Zhou Dynasty. "The Book of Songs Xiaoya Datian" also has the sentence "with millet millet, to enjoy and worship".During the Han and Jin dynasties, rice dumplings used millet, which was probably based on the tradition that the ancestors sacrificed millet and millet as a product for ancestor worship.The horn-shaped zongzi is probably an imitation of the horn shape, because it was prevalent in the Zhou Dynasty to sacrifice the gods of earth and valleys with horns, and the horns were used as sacrifices to show respect.It can be seen that eating zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival is also a custom associated with sacrifices.After Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Zongzi has become a necessary offering for offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors during the Dragon Boat Festival.In addition, since the Tang Dynasty, zongzi has also been used as a festival gift for relatives and friends.At that time, it was fashionable to tie nine small zongzi together with colored threads and give them away, which was called "nine zongzi".Tang Minghuang had a poem that "flowers compete for skill in four seasons, rice dumplings of nine sons compete for newness".

Since the Dragon Boat Festival falls in May, and after entering May, the weather is hot and the plague begins to spread. The ancients regarded May as the "evil month" ("Jingchu Moon Shiji"), so the Dragon Boat Festival has the etiquette of avoiding evil and detoxification. . "Xia Xiaozheng" records that in the pre-Qin period, the method of "storing and collecting fairy medicine" was used to "remove poisonous gas by juan donation".In the Han Dynasty, specific door decorations were used to ward off evil. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty Etiquette" said: "On May 5th, Zhu Suo and the five-color seal (peach seal) are the door decorations to stop the bad breath." The virus eliminates disasters and is called "longevity thread".During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Jingchu area in the south switched to the method of hanging "Ai Ren" to remove poisonous gas. "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji" says: "Collect mugwort as a human being, hang it on the door, and use it to eliminate poisonous gas." Mugwort is mugwort, and its stems and leaves contain volatile aromatic oil. The peculiar fragrance it produces can repel mosquitoes and flies. Insects and ants, purify the air.Inserting moxa on the doors and windows of the Dragon Boat Festival does have a certain effect on disease prevention.In the Song Dynasty, calamus, a precious medicinal material, was regarded by Taoists as a thing to ward off evil spirits.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, drinking calamus wine to dispel poisonous gas became very popular.Calamus wine is a kind of medicinal wine made with calamus as the main medicinal material and white wine or yellow rice wine as the original wine.Calamus wine was originally created by the working people in ancient times as a kind of medicinal wine beneficial to people. However, in ancient society, its medicinal essence of curing diseases and keeping fit was covered up, and what people are familiar with is a mysterious moon order ritual and custom. of evil spirits.