My hometown is in a remote village in northern Jiangsu. Dragon Boat Festival every year is already a "busy" season in rural areas. When I am overworked at home and busy with farming, I am one of the main laborers. Only on the Dragon Boat Festival can I stay at home and do housework. I remember my father would go to town early in the morning to weigh some meat and buy some fish to keep at home. You can't eat these at ordinary times, and you can only have a rare tooth sacrifice on holidays. I got up early and was busy with other housework, so I went to the field with a basket to collect all kinds of weeds. In the afternoon, I came back to boil water for a bath, saying that boiling water with herbs during the Dragon Boat Festival would keep me healthy all summer and avoid skin diseases. At that time, it was one of the indispensable customs of the Dragon Boat Festival in rural hometown. The most important herbs are wormwood and calamus, and of course there are honeysuckle by the river and mint grass in the field. I collected all kinds of weeds, put them in my eight pots, filled them with water, and then put some eggs and garlic in the pots (sometimes garlic is baked in the oven). These are all necessary and one of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival. Then I started burning them and kept boiling water. Boiling water is turquoise. The water is boiling, the eggs are ripe and the garlic is rotten. We don't want garlic, we want boiled eggs. At the very least, our brothers and sisters can each have an egg, because eggs are usually saved and sold to subsidize the family, and boiled eggs can only be eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival. At that time, we always held round and boiling eggs in our hands to play with, reluctant to eat. The eggshell is also stained with turquoise, which looks more attractive. In addition to the smell of eggs, it smells good. At that time, we often played with eggs until evening, then carefully cut the eggshell and ate the eggs slowly. After the water is boiled, remove the weeds inside, scoop the water into the bathtub to take a bath, and then take a bath when it is warm. Tie wool to your sister-in-law after taking a shower. At that time, during the Dragon Boat Festival, wool was sold everywhere in the town. It is colorful and beautiful. Because there is another custom in my hometown during the Dragon Boat Festival, that is, children who have bathed should tie these wool around their necks, wrists and ankles, and they will not cut them until July 7 and throw them on the eaves for magpies to build colorful bridges for the night party of cowherd and weaver girl.
To tell the truth, I have never known how these customs came from, nor have I heard from the old people in the village. All I know is that everyone did it then. And I have always been surprised. At that time, no one in our village made zongzi every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, but every household was very lively. Even when the countryside is busiest, it can't dilute the festive atmosphere. At night, I always see almost all the children washed clean, with boiled eggs in their hands and colorful wool hanging around their necks, showing off in front of their friends. I didn't know that Dragon Boat Festival was a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan until I went to junior high school. My previous knowledge in this field was completely blank. Because there are few rivers in my hometown, there are no traditional customs related to water, such as the so-called dragon boat race.
More than ten years have passed, and those childhood holiday customs have gradually disappeared in my hometown. The standard of living has improved, and every day is like a festival, and the atmosphere of the festival has faded. Environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious, and weeds used to boil water have disappeared. I just don't know that today's children don't tie silk thread, and the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl don't have a colorful bridge built by magpies. How can they meet? Oh, I forgot, it's hard to see magpies in my hometown now.