What's the difference between northerners and southerners on Dragon Boat Festival?

Since ancient times, there has been a saying in China that "the boat goes south and the horse goes north". There are dragon boat races in the south, and there is a custom of writing poems on willows in the north. In ancient times, whenever the Dragon Boat Festival came, the local government in the north would invite the literati in the city to ride horses to the suburbs for a feast and write poems in memory of Qu Yuan. This activity is called "stepping on willows".

Until now, the custom of chanting poems on willow trees during the Dragon Boat Festival still exists in the north. In some places, large-scale patriotic poetry activities will be held on the Dragon Boat Festival, and everyone will get together to recite poems in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

2. Zongzi

In our traditional concept, a significant difference in food culture between the north and the south is "sweet in the south and salty in the north", but the north and south zongzi have broken through this barrier. There are salty zongzi in the south and sweet zongzi in the north.

Southern Zongzi has various shapes-triangle, torch, cone and square. The exquisite appearance first satisfies the appetite of foodies. South Zongzi is rich in fillings, comparable to jiaozi in the north, including fresh meat, ham, bacon and egg yolk. Salty taste is the main flavor of southern zongzi. If you eat a fresh meat and egg yolk zongzi in the morning, you will still feel unfinished after eating two.

People in Renye Fang like to eat zongzi, which is eaten with white sugar dipped in it. It is sweet and delicious. Usually, there is a steady supply of zongzi in the supermarket. On the Dragon Boat Festival, all kinds of candied dates, red bean paste and sweet rice dumplings flooded the market overnight, and there were many choices.

3. Other differences

In the south, every household will put calamus and moxa sticks on the lintel and hang them in the hall every Dragon Boat Festival. According to folklore experts, the custom of hanging moxa sticks and calamus in the southern Dragon Boat Festival is equivalent to setting off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits in the Spring Festival. In addition, the ancients also had the custom of wearing sachets. In Mawangdui, Changsha, many unearthed cultural relics revealed this information. The sachet is filled with cinnabar, realgar and fragrant medicine, wrapped in silk, and the fragrance is overflowing.

The northern Dragon Boat Festival has the custom of wearing Zhong Kui copper coins to ward off evil spirits, and now it is gradually replaced by the custom of children wearing a Chinese-style chest covering with five poisons. Wudu has a red belly pocket embroidered with five poisons: centipede, scorpion, toad, mouse and snake. It is said that it can drive away poison and evil spirits. Five-colored silk thread is also a way for northerners to ward off evil spirits during the Dragon Boat Festival.