Why the dragon boat race?
Dragon boat race is the main custom of Dragon Boat Festival. According to legend, people
Why the dragon boat race?
Dragon boat race is the main custom of Dragon Boat Festival. According to legend, people who originated in the ancient State of Chu were reluctant to part with the death of the sage Qu Yuan, and many people rowed boats to save people. They rushed to catch up with each other and disappeared at Dongting Lake. After that, I will row a dragon boat on May 5th every year to commemorate it. Rowing a dragon boat to disperse the fish in the river so as not to eat Qu Yuan's body. The habit of competition prevailed in wuyue and Chu.
In addition to legend, the "Dragon Boat Race" did exist as early as the Warring States Period. Carving dragon-shaped canoes in drums and playing race games are semi-religious and semi-entertaining programs to entertain gods and people in the ceremony. Later, in addition to commemorating Qu Yuan, the dragon boat races in different places were given different meanings.
Before the dragon boat race, please invite dragons to offer sacrifices to the gods. For example, before the Dragon Boat Festival in Guangdong, you should go out of the water, worship the Nanhai God in the Nanhai Temple, install the dragon head and tail, and then prepare for the race. And buy a pair of paper cocks and put them on the dragon boat, thinking that they can keep the boat safe (vaguely corresponding to the ancient bird boat). Fujian and Taiwan went to Mazu Tempel to worship. Some directly kill chickens in dragon festival by the river, and the dragon first drops blood, such as Sichuan, Guizhou and other individual areas.
The implication of dragon boat race on Dragon Boat Festival
The theory of commemorating Qu Yuan
According to the historian Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng, Qu Yuan was a minister of Chu Huaiwang in the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated prospering talents and empowering the people, becoming rich and uniting with Qi to resist Qin, which was strongly opposed by the nobles. Qu Yuan was expelled from the capital and exiled to the Yuanxiang Valley. He went into exile abroad and wrote immortal poems such as Li Sao, Tian Wen and Jiu Ge, which worried about the country and the people. In 278 BC, Qin Jun invaded Kyoto, Chu, and Qu Yuan could not bear to abandon his motherland. On the fifth day of May, after writing his masterpiece Huai Sha, he threw himself into the river.
Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were so sad that they flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to Qu Yuan. The fisherman paddled the boat and fished for his real body back and forth on the river. They rushed to catch up with each other and disappeared at Dongting Lake. After that, I will row a dragon boat on May 5th every year to commemorate it. Rowing a dragon boat to disperse the fish in the river so as not to eat Qu Yuan's body.
In Miluo County, Hunan Province, before the dragon boat race, you must go to Quzi Temple to worship the dragon head, put red cloth on the dragon head, and then race the boat, which is not only to worship the dragon god, but also to commemorate Qu Yuan. In Zigui, Hubei, Qu Yuan's hometown, there is also a ceremony to worship Qu Yuan. The custom of offering sacrifices to Qu Yuan is recorded in "Geography of Sui Shu": "The song is loud and clear, shaking the land and water, and the audience is like a cloud." Interpretation of Du Jingqu in Yuxi, Liu Tang: "Du Jing began in Wuling, and now it is harmony, and the sound is salty: where, the meaning of four valleys."
Tiger Pan confessed in Yuanling.
Long before Qu Yuan, there were dragon boats in Yuanling. Yuanling Dragon Boat originated in ancient times, and the object of sacrifice was Pan Hu, the ancestor of the five rivers. Pan Hu once settled in Banxi Cave, Yuanling, and gave birth to six children and six daughters. The children married and multiplied into six ethnic groups: Miao, Yao, Dong, Tu, She and Li. After Pan Hu's death, six departments invited witches and gods to recruit them. Because of the dense mountains and rivers in Yuanling, the wizard didn't know where his soul fell, so he asked all ethnic groups to build dragon boats and look for shouts by stream and river, which eventually evolved into a ritual activity of boating. Yuanling Dragon Boat originated 5,000 years ago, more than 3,000 years earlier than the statement commemorating Qu Yuan.
Theory of commemorating the dragon god
Legend has it that a long time ago, there was no river on the west bank, only a small and dirty ditch. One day, a fisherman caught a small snake in a ditch. This little snake is very strange. There are nine shiny scales on its tail. As soon as the fisherman touched the fish scale, the snake's eyes shone with begging light, which was very pitiful. The fisherman felt sorry for it, touched its scales and put it back in the ditch.
Who knows, the nine scales suddenly fell off, and the little snake danced and turned into a little dragon. It turned out to be a dragon, and it became like this because it broke the dogma and was punished by the jade emperor. There are nine strands on its tail-a small snake has nine shiny scales on its tail. The Jade Emperor once said, "This lock can't be opened unless it is positive." Just now, the fisherman accidentally opened the Millennium shackles on Xiaolong.
In order to thank the fisherman, Xiaolong kept turning around in the ditch, spouting water from his mouth and pouring it into the small ditch. Slowly, this small ditch became a big river (West Bank River), which brought abundant crops to the West Bank. To commemorate this dragon, people call the villages along the river Longtouzhai and Shanglongshou Village. On the day when the dragon ascended to heaven, that is, the Dragon Boat Festival, people held dragon boat races to celebrate.
Dragon Boat Festival timetable from 2020 to 2035
Dragon Boat Festival in 2020: Thursday, June 25th, 2020.
Dragon Boat Festival 202 1: June 14, Monday 202 1.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2022: Friday, June 3, 2022.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2023: Thursday, June 22nd, 2023.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2024: Monday, June 2024 10.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2025: Saturday, May 3, 20251.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2026: Friday, June 19, 2026.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2027: Wednesday, June 9, 2027
Dragon Boat Festival in 2028: Sunday, May 28th, 2028.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2029: June 2029/KLOC-Saturday, 0/6.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2030: Wednesday, June 5, 2030.
Dragon Boat Festival 203 1: Tuesday, June 24th, 2031.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2032: June 2032/KLOC-Saturday, 0/2.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2033: Wednesday, June 0 1 day, 2033
Dragon Boat Festival in 2034: Tuesday, June 20th, 2034.
Dragon Boat Festival in 2035: Sunday, June 2035 10.