The Origin and Taboo of Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional folk festival in China, also called Duanyang Festival. In addition to eating zongzi and rowing dragon boats, the Dragon Boat Festival is also a multi-ethnic festival for all people to prevent diseases, ward off evil spirits and drive away drugs, and pray for health and longevity. The following is the origin and taboos of the Dragon Boat Festival that I compiled for you, hoping to help you.

The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

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.

Taboos of Dragon Boat Festival

1, avoid eating Niangzi dumplings.

In ancient times, my daughter got married and lived in her husband's family for a long time, rarely seeing her parents. From the early Tang Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, there was a custom of returning to her mother's house during the Dragon Boat Festival.

However, in Shandong, it is said that the married daughter doesn't have to go back to her husband's family before the Dragon Boat Festival, that is, she can't spend the Dragon Boat Festival at her parents' home.

Because there is a folk saying that "if you eat the Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi from your parents' house, the whole family will die. "

2. No sexual relations.

The ancients believed that May was the month of nine poisons, and the Dragon Boat Festival was the first of nine poisons.

If the qi of heaven and earth is wrong, it will inevitably affect people's body and mind, so if you have sex in nine poisonous days, you must be infected with evil spirits.

Therefore, it is forbidden to have sex on the Dragon Boat Festival in the ancient training, and it is stipulated that from the first day of May to the fifth day of May, women should stay at their parents' home and the husband and wife are separated. This day is designated as "Mothering Day".

3. Avoid poisonous gas attacks.

As I said before, the Dragon Boat Festival is a poisonous month. From the meteorological point of view of the lunar calendar, it is from summer to around, so it is also the most sunny day of the year.

From the perspective of the five elements, any kind of five elements that are too prosperous or too weak will form evil spirits, which will threaten and harm the natural climate or personal health.

Therefore, it is necessary to insert moxa, peach skills, calamus and other spirits on the door during the Dragon Boat Festival. Smoked atractylodes macrocephala, angelica dahurica, drank realgar wine and so on.

4. Avoid holding festive activities.

The most important content of Dragon Boat Festival is to offer sacrifices to ancestors. Sadness is inevitable when offering sacrifices, so this day is not suitable for saying blessings to others, and of course it is not suitable for holding and participating in festive activities such as opening, marriage and celebration.

In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year, which is the "anniversary of Yang Gong's death". It is absolutely not allowed to handle major events such as opening, construction, marriage and signing contracts on this day.

Avoid swimming in the river on Dragon Boat Festival. Because May is an "evil month" and the fifth day is an unlucky day, some places avoid swimming on this day, especially where people drown. Because the Dragon Boat Festival "drowning ghosts" is the most fierce, it is necessary to find a pair to "return the sun", so there is a custom of throwing zongzi into the river to let him share the pair.

5. Children have many taboos.

Dragon Boat Festival is not only an unlucky day, but also very important for children's physical and mental health, so there are many taboos about children, such as the Dragon Boat Festival is not suitable for having children; Babies under one year old will be sent to grandma's house for shelter during the Dragon Boat Festival. On the morning of Dragon Boat Festival, children eat two duck eggs and sprinkle realgar wine on them to drive away pests and protect their health.

In the north, children have the custom of wearing sachets to ward off evil spirits. Moreover, the sachet worn by children should not be lost. It is said that if the child loses the sachet, there will be great disaster within one year.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, children should throw sachets into the water to avoid fire.

Matters needing attention in Dragon Boat Festival diet

First, drink realgar wine carefully during the Dragon Boat Festival.

According to the common sense of TCM health care, realgar tastes bitter, warm, slightly pungent and toxic, and can be applied externally and taken orally. The most special thing is that although realgar can be soaked in wine, it must be drunk according to the doctor's advice because of its corrosiveness, and only realgar wine processed according to the ancient method can be drunk.

Second, eat zongzi healthily.

The Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is also called Duanyang Festival. In our previous article about the origin and customs of the Dragon Boat Festival, we mentioned that people have the customs of eating zongzi, inserting wormwood and calamus, drinking realgar wine and racing dragon boats. What to eat on Dragon Boat Festival? Mainly eat zongzi. According to the common sense of diet, zongzi is a high-calorie food that is not easy to digest, so we should pay attention to the control of quantity when eating.

Third, will eating zongzi make you fat?

Look at the following data and you will understand. Take 1 zongzi as an example. If pork, mushrooms, raisins, shrimp skin, egg yolk, peanuts and other fillings are included, the heat is about 500-650 calories. 1 small halogen jiaozi, and the heat is also 120 kcal; People often like to eat meat zongzi, and the calorie is about 200-250 calories, so the calorie of eating 1 zongzi is often much higher than that of a bowl of rice. According to experts on healthy eating, the main difference between the cooking time of zongzi lies in whether the stuffing and rice are fried. Therefore, friends who are afraid of being fat should pay enough attention!

You must eat zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. In this regard, it is suggested that you should not only pay attention to weight control, but also adopt the practice of packaging healthy zongzi, that is, adjust the material of zongzi and replace it with some miscellaneous grains of rice to increase fiber, vitamins and minerals. What problems should we pay attention to during the Dragon Boat Festival? Who shouldn't eat zongzi? Read patiently and you will get all the answers.

Nutritionists tell us that it is best to drink tea and water at the same time when eating zongzi. What are the benefits of drinking tea? Can help swallowing and digestion, it is best to eat less every time, you can choose mini zongzi;

2, many people will cause gastrointestinal discomfort because they eat too much dumplings, mainly ignoring the intake of vegetables and fruits, resulting in insufficient fiber, so when eating dumplings, they should be accompanied by a cold vegetable and fruit salad;

3, jiaozi should be fully heated and boiled before eating;

4, people with a bad stomach can choose white dumplings, don't stick sugar, don't eat too sweet;

5. Patients with cholecystitis, gallstones and pancreatitis should not eat jiaozi with high fat and protein such as jiaozi with meat stuffing and jiaozi with egg yolk.

Fourth, look at the Dragon Boat Festival food carefully.

Before the Dragon Boat Festival, seasonal delicacies such as zongzi, mung bean cake, sesame seed cake, salted eggs and preserved eggs have filled the counters in the streets. Experts in the industry suggest that it is best for citizens to go to big supermarkets to buy products from regular manufacturers in order to eat with confidence. Health tip: buy zongzi. First, freeze zongzi. Its main advantages are maintaining the original flavor, convenient eating and long storage time, and the shelf life is one year at-65438 08℃. The varieties are fresh meat, red bean paste, candied dates and peanuts. The other is fresh-keeping zongzi, which can be preserved for one month at room temperature after high temperature disinfection and vacuum treatment. In view of the present situation that some salted eggs fake red hearts with oil and pigment in the market, experts with common sense of healthy eating especially remind consumers that the origin and processing quality of salted eggs and preserved eggs in big supermarkets are relatively reliable at present. In addition, the brand series of mung bean cakes and sesame cakes sold in supermarkets are of good quality.

5. Inserting wormwood can repel mosquitoes

In the traditional Dragon Boat Festival, every household will insert wormwood and drink realgar wine in order to avoid poison and exorcise evil spirits and keep fit. These methods of keeping in good health were of great significance in ancient times when medicine was underdeveloped. The common sense of healthy living is that wormwood is a kind of plant with special smell, so the insect repellent effect is quite good. Moreover, Xin Wen can purify the air, has the effect of aromatic resuscitation, can make people clear their heads, improve their hearing and memory, and even prevent colds. According to common sense of life, wormwood is suitable for activating collaterals and relaxing tendons because of its warm nature. Therefore, in traditional Chinese medicine, mugwort leaves or moxa sticks are often used for acupuncture or herbal fumigation. The smell of mugwort in the body can make the whole body's blood flow smooth and blood circulation better.

Folium Artemisiae Argyi is warm, bitter, non-toxic and fragrant, and can be made into decoction. It can stop bleeding, protect fetus and treat infertility for women with gynecological irregular menstruation, hematemesis, diarrhea and massive hemorrhage. For example, boiling water and bathing can cure common skin diseases of women, and stewed chicken with mugwort leaves or pork can cure gynecological diseases. However, wormwood is suitable for people with cold diseases, such as those with cold hands and feet, but not for those who get angry easily. Such as frequent dry mouth, bitter taste, hot face, habitual constipation, oral ulcer, hemorrhoids, yin deficiency and hyperactivity of yang, irritability and sweating, coughing and vomiting blood, etc., are not suitable to avoid aggravating the condition.

Sixth, the main and non-staple food collocation

Festive diet is rich in dishes, often with too much meat and too greasy. Jane Yanting suggested that during the festival, we should first pay attention to the collocation of staple food and non-staple food, and advocate vegetarian food. Balance between meat and vegetables can stimulate people's appetite and ensure a balanced nutrition.

Seven, thick and thin collocation

It is necessary to eat coarse grains and crude fiber foods properly, and mix coarse grains with flour and rice to help digestion. But for patients with chronic gastritis, try to eat less indigestible and flatulence-prone foods, such as sweet potatoes, taro, pumpkin, glutinous rice and soybean milk.

Eight, moderate drinking.

When friends and relatives get together, wine can add to the atmosphere. Experts remind that moderate drinking can promote blood circulation, but don't drink to your heart's content, because heavy drinking will not only cause alcoholism, acute gastric mucosal damage and alcoholic hepatitis, but also induce the onset of cholecystitis, pancreatitis and other diseases.

In addition, when people drink, especially when they drink too much, they often feel full and don't want to eat any more after drinking, which is actually harmful to the human body. Eat more after drinking, eat more fruits and vegetables, supplement important antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E, and reduce the harm of alcohol to human body.

Nine, snacks are mainly appetizers.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Zongzi itself is difficult to digest, and people's stomachs are usually filled with rich holiday meals. At this time, snacks should be appetizing, regulating qi and relieving bloating, and try to eat less high-calorie foods such as peanuts, melon seeds and candy. For example, you can eat apples, pears, bananas and other fruits in moderation when eating. Plum, hawthorn slices and mint can all be used as appropriate condiments.