How did the ancient people spend the Dragon Boat Festival?

Dragon Boat Festival originated in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, and even kindergarten children know it. In fact, there are many sayings about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival in ancient times, such as paying homage to Wu Zixu, the pottery god, commemorating Jiezitui who fled into the mountains, and remembering his filial daughter Cao E and so on.

According to Wen Yiduo, a scholar, the fifth day of May is the day when people in ancient wuyue sacrificed dragons. Dragons are the totems of some tribes in wuyue. Dragon boat races and zongzi throwing are nothing more than people playing, dragon festival. Another view is that whether crossing a boat or eating zongzi, it was originally an activity of the ancient summer solstice festival. Because the summer solstice is similar to the Dragon Boat Festival, it was later moved to the custom of the Dragon Boat Festival-the summer solstice is usually after the Dragon Boat Festival, and this year, it jumped to the front of the Dragon Boat Festival.

In fact, in the eyes of the ancients, May was not a good month, and May 5th was a dangerous day. It is said that on this day, "evil is in power, and five poisons come out at the same time." If you catch up with this day of birth, then "men harm their fathers and women harm their mothers." Of course, this is superstition and not enough training. However, the Dragon Boat Festival is in midsummer, and the weather has become hot and humid. Especially in the south, the epidemic began and poisonous insects raged, which made people unable to adapt for a while and easily caused diseases. However, women are pregnant and give birth at this time, which is naturally risky. It is precisely because of this that all activities of the Dragon Boat Festival are mainly to ward off evil spirits and poisons.

As early as in the Book of Rites, it was recorded that "the orchid soup was bathed on May 5." That is, herbs such as vanilla, absinthe, calamus, honeysuckle, nettle and wild mint are collected. Cooking soup and bathing can not only cleanse the skin and cure carbuncle, but also make the body light and energetic; The Dragon Boat Festival is also called Yulan Festival. "Songs of the South" contains the poem "Bathing orchid soup and soaking fragrant flowers".

On this day, people also drink medicinal liquor brewed with calamus and realgar. Both are medicinal materials, and realgar is also poisonous. But fighting poison with poison is also a way for the ancients to prevent diseases and exorcise evil spirits. -Wipe the leftover realgar wine on the child's forehead, chest, hands and feet. Probably because children are young and shouldn't drink. Sprinkle more wine on doors, windows, walls and other places to drive away poisonous insects, which is equivalent to sprinkling Su Shui and spraying 84 disinfectant today.

Then there is carving the leaves of Acorus calamus into human or gourd shapes and wearing them on the head; Or woven into a sword shape and hung at the door, which is called "Pu Jian" in history to ward off evil spirits. It is also useful to weave mugwort leaves into tiger shapes or human figures, hang them on the door and wear them on your head. -Folium Artemisiae Argyi contains volatile aromatic oil, which can repel mosquitoes. It can also be made into moxa, which is an essential medicinal material for acupuncture.

There are also five-color peach blossom prints hanging on the door, six inches long and three inches wide, made of peach wood and engraved with five-color Chinese characters. That purpose is naturally to ward off evil spirits.

In addition, the ancients also put colorful sachets on children at noon, which contained cinnabar, realgar, fragrant medicine and other things, which were not only holiday decorations, but also had the function of avoiding evil spirits and expelling plague.

In addition, on this day, people also try to wrap their arms with colorful silk, which is also called "acacia rope". It is said that you can "recruit and hate ghosts (prevent weapons from hurting ghosts and subduing ghosts)" and will not be infected with the plague. -When I was a child, I saw girls winding colored silk threads on paper zongzi as gifts for friends and family. Should it be a continuation of this custom?

In the midsummer of May, a hundred herbs were abundant, and the ancients wanted to fight a hundred herbs. Fighting grass is divided into war and literary warfare. The method of warfare is that both sides choose tough grass stems, hold both ends with their hands, let the grass stems cross and pull each other, and the loser loses. -We played this game when we were young, but it wasn't necessarily May Festival. It was dedicated to the petiole of poplar, and it was called "uprooting".

As for the literary fight, it is to fight in the name of grass, and the high-skilled person wins. For example, in the sixty-second chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, several girls, such as Xiangling, Fangguan and Ruiguan, mowed grass for the play. The scene of mowing grass around May was written about "Luo Hansong" versus "Guanyin Willow" and "lovers' love" versus "sister flowers".

The ancients also believed that collecting herbs on the fifth day of May and processing them into medicines could treat many diseases. If the herbs are mashed into juice before dawn and made into medicine cakes with lime, the knife wound can be treated. On this day, garlic can be used to treat heartache or malaria, and purslane can be used to deliver babies to pregnant women.

For another example, at noon this day, at the bedside of leek, you "don't talk" and collect earthworm dung from the edge of the bed. When you encounter fishbone or foreign body stuck in your throat, you can rub it outside with a little mud-this is close to witchcraft.

There are many folk remedies related to the Dragon Boat Festival, such as silkworm moth sting, dried alum to treat insects, whelping, scallion to treat epidemics, chicken intestine grass to treat teeth, Phellinus igniarius to treat throat obstruction, lettuce to treat moths, carp pillow to treat dysentery, fig to treat throat disease, burning jujube to turn fleas, cursing lamp grass to turn flies, toad to make soldiers ... The key points must be collected and processed on May 5.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, lizards were caught at noon to feed cinnabar. In the second year of Dragon Boat Festival, the red lizard was mashed and smeared on the ladies' arms. As long as the maid-in-waiting stays chaste, the red mole will not die ... this is another trick to scare women!

Calculate, how many things did the ancients do on the Dragon Boat Festival? Make zongzi (1), row dragon boats (2), soak in orchid soup (3), drink realgar (4), nod children's forehead (5), hang Pu Jian (6), Dai (7), hang peach seal (8), wear sachets (9) and wrap colored silk (65438). Raising lizards (13) ... In addition, this day can also be used for apologizing (14), asking for a change of official title (15) and offering sacrifices to ancestors (16), which does not include commemorating Dr. Qu (17)

But on the whole, all the activities of this day can be summed up as following the season, preventing diseases and exorcising evil spirits, strengthening the body and improving the spirit. Therefore, it can be said that the Dragon Boat Festival is a general mobilization of national health carried out by the ancients under the packaging of folk beliefs!