Introduction to World Population Day and Dragon Boat Festival! ! ~~

World Population Day

On July 11, 1987, a baby in Yugoslavia was born, who was symbolically recognized by the United Nations as the 5 billionth person on earth, and announced that the earth’s population had exceeded 5 billion mark. The United Nations Population Activities Fund (UNEPA) initiated this day as "World Population Day of 5 Billion". The United Nations Population Fund decided to designate July 11 every year as "World Population Day" from 1988. Raise people's attention to world population issues.

According to the recommendations of the 36th session of the Board of Governors of the United Nations Development Program, in order to attract the attention of governments and people around the world to population issues, the United Nations Population Fund requires governments and civil society organizations to carry out "World Population Day" during this period. "Activity. Since then, every year on July 11, countries around the world have launched promotional activities.

At midnight on February 15, 1995, a baby weighing 3,700 grams was born at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, announcing the arrival of China’s 1.2 billionth citizen. Less than 2,000 days before the "1.1 billion population day" on April 11, 1989, 100 million new passengers were added to the huge population train. In order to further arouse the public's attention to population issues.

On October 12, 1999, the world's population reached 6 billion. The United Nations designated today as the World's "6 Billion Population Day."

Dragon Boat Festival

Introduction to Dragon Boat Festival

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The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the traditional Chinese folk festival - the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as "Duanyang", "Pu Festival", "Tianzhong Festival", "Dachang Festival", "Mulan Festival", "Daughter's Day". It is one of the traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. The Dragon Boat Festival is also called Dragon Boat Festival. , Girl's Day, Tianzhong Festival, Di La, Poet's Day, Dragon Day, AI Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Summer Festival, etc. Although the names are different, generally speaking, the customs of people in various places are more similar than different. To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people.

Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional habit of the Chinese people for more than 2,000 years. Due to the vast territory and numerous ethnic groups, some Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Buyi, Korean, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, She, Lahu, Shui, Naxi, Daur, Mulao, Qiang, Gelao, Xibo, Pumi, Ewenki, Yugu , Oroqen and other ethnic minorities also celebrate this festival, and with many stories and legends, not only have many different festival names been produced, but there are also different customs in different places. Welcoming ghost boats, hiding in the afternoon, putting up leaf talismans at noon, hanging calamus and mugwort, visiting all diseases, wearing sachets, preparing sweet wine for sacrifices, dragon boat races, martial arts competitions, hitting balls, playing on swings, applying realgar to children, drinking realgar wine and calamus In addition to the superstitious activities such as drinking wine, eating Wudu cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings and seasonal fruits, which have gradually disappeared, other activities such as dragon boat racing have been spread throughout China and neighboring countries. , broke through time and geographical boundaries and became an international sports event.

There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: commemorating Qu Yuan; commemorating Wu Zixu; commemorating Cao E; The theory of the Summer Solstice Festival of the Three Dynasties; the theory of repelling evil moons and evil suns; the theory of the Wu Yue National Totem Sacrifice; and so on. Each of the above theories has its own origin, according to the "Dragon Boat Festival Examination" and "Dragon Boat Festival Historical Education" by the scholar. According to more than 100 ancient book records and expert archaeological research, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is a totem festival held by the Wuyue people in southern China in ancient times, earlier than Qu Yuan. However, over thousands of years, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely spread. Therefore, people "cherish and grieve for it, comment on it and pass it on from generation to generation." Therefore, the commemoration of Qu Yuan has the widest and deepest influence and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people regard the Dragon Boat Festival as the dragon boat race. Eating rice dumplings, etc., are all associated with commemorating Qu Yuan.

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festival that began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China. It has a history of more than 2,000 years. There are many origins and legends about the Dragon Boat Festival. Here are only the following four types:

In memory of Qu Yuan

According to the "Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng" in "Historical Records", Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. He promoted virtuous people and empowered them, enriched the country and strengthened its army, and advocated uniting Qi to resist Qin. However, he was strongly opposed by the nobleman Zilan and others. Qu Yuan was greedy and resigned, was expelled from the capital, and was exiled to the Yuan and Xiang rivers.

In exile, he wrote immortal poems such as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which were concerned about the country and the people. They were unique in style and had far-reaching influence (therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Poet's Day). In 278 BC, the Qin army captured Kyoto, the state of Chu. Seeing his motherland being invaded, Qu Yuan was heartbroken, but he still could not bear to abandon his motherland. On May 5, after writing his last work "Huaisha", he bouldered into the Miluo River and died, risking his own life. Composed a magnificent patriotic movement.

It is said that after Qu Yuan died, the people of Chu State were extremely sad and flocked to the Miluo River to pay their respects to Qu Yuan. The fishermen rowed their boats and fished for his true body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out rice balls, eggs and other food prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river "plop, plop", saying that when the fish, lobsters and crabs were full, they would not bite Dr. Qu's body. People followed suit after seeing it. An old doctor took a jar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying it was to stun dragons and water animals so as not to harm Doctor Qu. Later, for fear that the rice balls would be eaten by dragons, people came up with the idea of ??wrapping the rice with neem leaves and wrapping it with colored silk, which developed into rice dumplings.

Since then, on the fifth day of May every year, there has been the custom of dragon boat racing, eating rice dumplings, and drinking realgar wine to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

Commemorating Wu Zixu

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival is widely circulated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It commemorates Wu Zixu during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC). Wu Zixu was a member of the Chu State, and his father and brother were both killed by the King of Chu. Later, Zixu abandoned the dark side and turned to the bright side, and rushed to the State of Wu to help Wu attack Chu. After five battles, he entered Yingcheng, the capital of Chu. At that time, King Ping of Chu was dead, so Zixu dug up the grave and whipped the corpse three hundred times to avenge the death of his father and brother. After the death of King Helu of Wu, his son Fucha succeeded to the throne. The Wu army had high morale and won every battle. The country of Yue was defeated. King Goujian of Yue asked for peace, and Fucha agreed to it. Zixu suggested that the Yue Kingdom should be completely wiped out, but Fu Chai refused to listen, and the Wu State slaughtered him. He was bribed by the Yue Kingdom and framed Zixu with slanderous words. Fu Chai believed it and gave Zixu a sword, and Zixu died with it. Zixu was a loyal man and regarded death as home. Before he died, he said to his neighbors: "After I die, dig out my eyes and hang them on the east gate of Wu Jing to watch the Yue army enter the city and destroy Wu." Then he committed suicide and died. After hearing this, he was furious and ordered Zixu's body to be packed in leather and thrown into the river on May 5th. Therefore, it is said that the Dragon Boat Festival is also a day to commemorate Wu Zixu.

Commemorating the filial daughter Cao E

The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the filial daughter Cao E who saved her father and threw herself into the river in the Eastern Han Dynasty (23-220 AD). Cao E was a native of Shangyu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Her father drowned in the river and her body was not seen for several days. At that time, her filial daughter Cao E was only fourteen years old and cried along the river day and night. Seventeen days later, he also threw himself into the river on May 5th. Five days later, he took out his father's body. This was passed down as a myth, and then passed down to the county governor, who ordered Du Shang to erect a stele for it and his disciple Handan Chun to write a memorial in praise of it.

The tomb of the filial daughter Cao E is located in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province today. It is later said that the stele of Cao E was written by King Yi of the Jin Dynasty. In order to commemorate Cao E's filial piety, later generations built the Cao E temple where Cao E threw herself into the river. The village and town where she lived was renamed Cao E town, and the place where Cao E died for her father was named Cao E river.

Originally commemorates the revolutionary female poet Qiu Jin

Qiu Jin died for the country on May 5th. In order to respect her poems and mourn her heroic deeds, later generations are held in conjunction with the Poet's Festival. To commemorate, the Poet's Day is also designated as the Dragon Boat Festival in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. Qiu Jin, nicknamed Ruiqing Jingxiong, nicknamed Jianhu Nvxia, and nicknamed Yugu, was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. She was good at poetry, lyrics, songs, and rhymes when she was young. She also liked riding horses and fencing. She was known as Hua Mulan and Qin Liangyu in the world. At the age of 28, he participated in the revolution and had a great influence. He planned an uprising and was arrested by Qing soldiers during a meeting. He was unyielding and died heroically in Xuanhengkou, Shaoxing on May 5, the 33rd year of Guangxu.

Origined from the ancient Yue national totem sacrifice

A large number of unearthed cultural relics and archaeological research in modern times have confirmed that in the vast areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Neolithic Age, there was a culture characterized by geometrically printed pottery. remains. Experts infer that the tribe that remains is a tribe that worships the dragon totem - known as the Baiyue tribe in history. The patterns on the unearthed pottery and historical legends indicate that they had the custom of breaking their hair and getting tattoos, lived in water towns, and compared themselves to being descendants of dragons. The tools they produce include a large number of stone tools, as well as small bronze tools such as shovels and chisels. Among the pots and jars used as daily necessities, the printed pottery tripods for cooking food are unique to them and are one of the symbols of their ethnic group. Until the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still Baiyue people, and the Dragon Boat Festival was a festival created by them to worship their ancestors. In the course of thousands of years of historical development, most of the Baiyue people have integrated into the Han nationality, and the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival has become a festival for the entire Chinese nation.