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本帖最后由 robert_rk 于 2010-6-17 20:48 编辑
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. There are different findings about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival.
The mostly popular one is about the patriotic Chu Yuan who drowned himself to protest against the emperor.
Chu Yuan worked very hard to offer good counsel to the emperor but the emperor won't listen.
People respect Chu Yuan. When they heard that he was drowned, they jumped on boats to search for him. Failing to find Chu Yuan, people hit drums and made loud noises hoping to scare the fish so that they won't touch Chu Yuan's body.
People who lived along the river also put cooked rice in the river as a sacrifice. But then they found that the fish got the rice so people wrapped the cooked rice in bamboo leaves. This evolved to present day's rice dumplings.
Rice dumplings have been around for a long time. They were popular during summer in Eastern Han dynasty. During West Tsin dynasty, people started to have rice dumplings on Dragon Boat Festival.
Each family made a lot of dumplings so that there would be plenty for themselves, relatives, friends and teachers.
Some rice dumplings are made of sticky rice, fresh meat, salted meat or ham.
Others are made of sticky rice, bean paste, and honey.
Besides the death of Chu Yuan, the fifth lunar month is considered an unlucky month.
People believed that natural disasters and illness are common in the fifth month.
Most families hang calamus and Artemisia above their doors, kitchen and bed to help to get rid of the misfortune.
These are the leaves different gods and legendary heroes used to get rid of evil spirits.
Portraits of gods could be purchased to put on the front door to protect the whole family too.
It is believed that Dragon Boat Festival Day is a great day for collecting herbs as medicine.
They believe the herbs work better if you pick it and prepare it on this day.
Various kinds of herbs are also boiled in the water and people bathe in it to help staying healthy.
注释:
1 patriotic
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