The word "Dragon Boat Festival" first appeared in the Local Records of the Western Jin Dynasty: "The midsummer Dragon Boat Festival is also called the fifth day of May, which is the same as the summer solstice." Duan, ancient Chinese has the meaning of beginning and initial, which is called "Duanwu", that is, "the fifth day". Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Duan is also the topic of the birth of things", which means that Duan means the beginning, so the fifth day of May is called "Duanwu Festival". Yanjing's Chronicle of Years Old: "The fifth day is the fifth day of May, and the transliteration of the word" Duan "is also covered." The ancients used to refer to the first few days of May as end-to-end, respectively. "When you are old, Guang Ji" said: "The dusty people in Jingshi City take the first day of May as end-to-end, the second day as end-to-end, and the number even five is called end-to-end." The first afternoon of May is called Dragon Boat Festival. [1]
There are records in Pangu Wang Biao and San Ming Tong Hui, etc. In ancient times, Emperor heavenly stems and earthly branches was invented by the ancient Yue people. The ancients took heavenly stems and earthly branches as the carrier, the heavenly stems carried the way of heaven, and the earthly branches carried the way of land, and set up heavenly stems and earthly branches to contract the fate of heaven and earth. The ancient people used heavenly stems and earthly branches for calendar year, calendar month, calendar day and calendar time. According to the official calendar, according to the order of the twelve earthly branches, the fifth month is the "noon month", and the afternoon day is called "heavy noon", so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duanyang". [1][2][3]
According to statistics, the name of the Dragon Boat Festival is the largest among all the traditional festivals in China, reaching more than 2, such as Dragon Boat Festival, Heavy Noon Festival, Duanyang Festival, Duanwu Festival, Heavy Five Festival, Dangwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Summer Festival, Ai Festival, May Festival, Acorus Festival, Tianyi Festival, Yulan Festival, etc. Before the Tang Dynasty, the commonly used name was "the fifth day of May". After the Tang Dynasty, "Dragon Boat Festival" replaced other nicknames such as "the fifth day of May" and became the mainstream name. [4] The origin of several names of the Dragon Boat Festival:
The Mid-Day Festival is named because the Dragon Boat Festival is just around the summer solstice, the direct point of the sun is in the Tropic of Cancer, and the position of the sun in the sky is the most one day of the year. Tian Rucheng's Journey to the West Lake Volume 2 Pleasure of Xi Chao in the Ming Dynasty: "Dragon Boat Festival is the Mid-Day Festival because the sun goes to Zhongtian at noon and reaches its highest point, and You Ran at noon." [5]
The name of Duanyang Festival comes from the number of Yin and Yang arts. The afternoon is "Yangchen", and the first afternoon of the afternoon month is called Duanyang. "The Chronicle of Jingchu's Years Old" says: As the mountain climbs in midsummer, the sun is in the sky, and May is midsummer, and its first afternoon is a good day for climbing in the sun. [5]
The method of the era of the ancient branches of the Double Ninth Festival takes heavenly stems and earthly branches as the carrier, and the era is universal in heavenly stems and earthly branches. At first, the Dragon Boat Festival was the afternoon day of the dry calendar, and the first month was the first month, the fifth month was the afternoon month, and the afternoon day was called the heavy noon. In the Han dynasty, due to the unification of the north and the south and the change of the calendar, the court decided to change the Dragon Boat Festival to May 5 of the lunar calendar every year for the convenience of festivals. [6][7]
The Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race was originally a form of offering sacrifices to ancestors in ancient Wu and Yue areas. In the south, boats and boats were widely used, and dragon figures were often painted at the fore and aft of the boat as the totem or protector of the people. Dragon Boat Festival is an important activity of Dragon Boat Festival, which was popular in Wu, Yue and Chu in ancient times [8][9] and was very popular in the southern coastal area of China. [1][11][12]
When the fifth flood season is in some rural areas of Shanghai and near the northern shore of Hangzhou Bay, such as Fengxian and Nanhui, it is customary to call it "Duanwu Festival" as "Dangwu Flood Season". There are also some areas called "noon in May". [5][13]
Dragon-day festival dragon is the primitive belief of ancestors in ancient Wu and Yue areas, which originated from the worship of celestial phenomena. Black dragon in the east stays for seven nights, rising in the east in spring, rising in the south in summer, retreating in the west in autumn, and disappearing under the northern horizon in winter. The "dragon" mentioned in Yi Gan's poems is essentially an exposition of black dragon's seven-night stay at four o'clock a year. Mid-summer Dragon Boat Festival is a festival of flying dragons. During the Dragon Boat Festival, black dragon's main star "Fire" (Antares) is high in the south and the dragon spirit (yang spirit) is strong. [1][14][15]
The Dragon Boat Festival of Yulan Festival is in midsummer, which is a season with frequent skin diseases, and Duannoon Day is the day when the medicinal properties of plants and trees are the strongest in a year. The herbs collected on this day are the most effective and effective in treating skin diseases and eliminating evil spirits. There is a folk custom of picking herbs and boiling water to bathe in the Dragon Boat Festival, so it is called the Bathing Orchid Festival. In the Han Dynasty, "Da Dai Li" says, "Bathe in blue soup in the afternoon". [5][16]
The ancient people thought that Acorus calamus had the function of ward off evil spirits, and it was hung on the door to ward off evil spirits during the Dragon Boat Festival, so the Dragon Boat Festival was also called "Acorus calamus Festival". [5]
In May, it was called "evil month" in ancient times in the north, so in some places, on the Dragon Boat Festival, parents sent their children under the age of one to their grandmother's house to hide to avoid evil, so it was called "hiding afternoon festival". [17]
Miscellaneous Notes of Wan Department on the Ming and Shen List of Daughter's Day: "May Daughter's Day is the Dragon Boat Festival, with Dai Ai Ye and Five Poisons. Wan custom from the first day of May to the fifth day, decorated with a little girl, doing its best. Married women also return to their hometowns, because they are called Daughter's Day. " [5]
Dila Festival Taoism "Red Pine Zi Zhang Li" divides the whole year into five waxes, with the first day of the first month and the fifth day of May. "Seven Notes on Clouds" says: On the first day of May, the five emperors will meet in the south for three days. Find out the good and evil done by the ancestors of strangers and the descendants of the world, so as to convict and bless. Taoism believes that these twelfth lunar days in a year are auspicious days, suitable for offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods for blessing.