Detailed Introduction to the Origin and Traditional Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month each year, and is also known as the Duan Yang Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Double Fifth Festival. It is one of China's important traditional festivals. On this day, people eat zongzi, race dragon boats, and hang mugwort. Many customs have been passed down for thousands of years and are still widely observed in various places, and they are also closely tied to agricultural production and daily life.
Regarding the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, the most widely circulated account is that it commemorates Qu Yuan, a poet of the Chu state during the Warring States period. Legend has it that Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month in sacrifice for his country. When the people heard the news, they rowed boats to search for him and threw rice balls into the river to prevent fish and shrimp from eating his body, which later gradually evolved into the customs of dragon boat racing and eating zongzi. In addition, there are also accounts in various places commemorating Wu Zixu, the filial daughter Cao E, and others, and some views hold that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from ancient people's sacrifices to the dragon totem, showing that its origins are diverse.
From an agricultural perspective, the fifth lunar month is midsummer, when the weather is hot and humid and mosquitoes breed. The ancients regarded this period as a special time requiring the warding off of evil and plague, thus giving rise to customs such as hanging mugwort and acorus calamus at the door, wearing sachets, and drinking realgar wine. Mugwort and acorus calamus are both common medicinal plants with a distinctive fragrance, and are believed to help repel insects and keep the environment clean. These practices express people's simple wish to pray for health and peace.
Around the Dragon Boat Festival comes the busy season of summer harvest and summer planting. The main ingredient of zongzi, glutinous rice, and the zongzi leaves also come from field crops, so it can be said that this festival is closely related to farming life in both its origins and its customs. Today, the Dragon Boat Festival has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list, and the feelings of home and country and the farming wisdom it carries are still being passed down from generation to generation.