When I woke up, it was already the fifth day of May in the fourth year of Zhongping.

The most important thing for Ou Xing today is to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival is a set item in Ou Jiachong's spiritual and cultural construction work plan and is very important. According to the logic of P Society, it can effectively improve the cohesion of the whole clan.

The late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period were an important period for the evolution of the traditional folk customs of the Dragon Boat Festival.

During this period, the Dragon Boat Festival gradually transitioned from a day of great evil to a good day in the minds of the people.

In the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the days are getting longer, the nights are getting shorter, and the temperature is gradually rising. And because of more rainfall, the weather is becoming more humid.

The combination of dampness and heat causes poisonous insects to breed, germs to breed, and the probability of people getting infected and sick increases significantly. This is extremely dangerous and even fatal in an era of low productivity and underdeveloped medical and health care.

Cao Amo's wife Bian, and his sons Cao Pi and Cao Chong all died in May.

Even the nobles with relatively good living conditions are like this, so you can imagine the living conditions of ordinary people. Therefore, May was considered by our ancestors to be the month of life and death where yin and yang compete, which is extremely vicious.

And the fifth day of May is the most evil day in the evil month.

It is precisely because of this that many of the early Dragon Boat Festival folk customs were very evil.

Among these evil folk customs, the most terrifying is infanticide and infant abandonment.

On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the birth of a child is unknown, which was a social and cultural taboo that existed from the Warring States Period to the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.

This point was recorded by Wang Chong, a thinker of the Eastern Han Dynasty. His book "Lunheng" once said: "In the fifth month, a son kills his father and mother."

Ying Shao, a famous scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, also wrote in his book "Customs and Customs": "If a child is born on May 5th, the male will harm the father, and the female will harm the mother."

Under fear, killing and abandoning babies born on the fifth day of May has become a common horrific folk custom.

If a baby can be born on the fifth day of May and escape the disaster, it can even become a major news in the annals of history. For example, Mengchang Jun Tianwen during the Warring States Period, and Hu Guang, an important minister during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

"Historical Records: Biography of Mengchangjun" once recorded that Mengchangjun Tian Wen was born on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. His father Tian Ying thought: "A son born in the fifth month will grow up to the same age as his parents, which will be detrimental to his parents." He ordered Tian Wen's mother to abandon him.

"Shishuo Xinyu" contains an anecdote about Hu Guang, saying: "Hu Guang's surname is Huang. He was born on May 5th. His parents hated him, so he put it in an urn and threw it into the river. When Hu Gong heard that there was a child crying in the urn, he took it and raised it.

As his own son, he ascended to the third division."

The best way to overcome fear is to face it. In order to fight against this extremely evil day, our ancestors thought of some ways. For example, eat the evil.

Pei Xiang, a historian from the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty, noted in "Historical Records: The Benji of Xiaowu": "The Han Dynasty sent an owl to Dongjun, and on May 5, owl soup was given to all the officials. It was an evil bird, so they ate it."

Owl is the collective name for owl-shaped birds, also known as owls. In ancient times, owls were believed to be evil birds that eat their mothers, so they were eaten to eliminate their species.

Officials eat owls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. In addition to punishing evil and promoting good deeds, they also have the meaning of using owls as sacrifices to atone for sins, pray for blessings, and drive away evil spirits. The evil bird that eats its mother was eaten by me, and I

In a place where shepherds are guarded, Wuyuezi will no longer be a hindrance to his parents.

It is better to defeat magic with magic and to fight superstition with superstition than to surrender to evil.

While the officials eat owl soup, the people also have their own way of resistance - decorating the door with Zhu Suo, peach seal and mugwort, and tying colorful silk on their arms.

"Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Etiquette Chronicles" records: "In the midsummer month, all things are in full bloom. On the day of the summer solstice, the yin energy is rising, and there is a fear that things will not survive. The etiquette: Use Zhu Suo to connect meat and vegetables, Mi Mou Gu Zhong, and use peach seal to grow

Six inches, three inches square, five-color calligraphy in accordance with the law, to decorate the door."

It is said that in early May, everything begins to grow, but the Yin Qi is still strong. In order to prevent the Yin Qi from getting in the way (so you need to find a way to suppress it). The method is to use red ropes to connect various meat dishes (referring to onions, ginger, garlic, etc.)

Strong-smelling food) and utensils, use five colors of ink to write incantations on a six-inch-long, three-inch-wide peach wood seal, and then hang them on the door, (this can encourage Yang energy and suppress Yin energy.

evil).

The "Jingchu Years' Notes" compiled by Liang Zongmao during the Southern and Northern Dynasties recorded: "On May 5th..., moxa was collected as a human being and hung on the door to ward off poisonous gas."

That is to say, the collected wormwood is tied into a human shape and hung on the door. This is to use the "pure yang nature" of wormwood to suppress the yin energy, drive away ghosts and poison.

In fact, the special aroma of mugwort can repel mosquitoes. If there are fewer mosquitoes, there will be fewer germs spread by them. This is indeed effective.

On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, Zhusuo is hung on the door of the home, and peach seals and wormwood are used to ward off evil spirits. What should travelers on the road do?

The method is to tie colorful silk on the arm.

"Customs and Customs" says: "On May 5th, those who tie their arms with colorful silk will ward off soldiers and ghosts, and will prevent people from getting sick."

Ying Shao also recorded the colorful silk in detail: "One is a long-lasting silk thread, one is a life-extending thread, one is a soldier's silk thread, one is a five-color silk thread, and one is a Zhu Suo. There are also Tiao Da and other miscellaneous things.

As a gift to each other."

There are fixed magic tools (Zhu Suo, Peach Seal and Mugwort) at home, and personal amulets (multicolored silk) outside. In order to fight against evil, our ancestors were armed to the teeth.

Then, things changed and developed. By the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the folk customs of the Dragon Boat Festival began to undergo major changes.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the intensive natural and man-made disasters shocked people's life and spiritual experiences unprecedentedly, and social culture underwent drastic changes.

This cultural change manifested itself as the rise of metaphysics among the elite, who were keen to talk about ultimate and original metaphysical propositions such as "emptiness" and "nothing", which eventually gave rise to the so-called Wei and Jin style.

Among the people, they regard life as a journey of hardship and believe that worshiping ghosts and gods cannot bring them happiness, so it is better to enjoy themselves in time and play in the world.

From a positive point of view, this means that the people are enjoying themselves in misery; from a negative point of view, this means that the general public is lying in ruins and doing whatever they want.

In addition, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the time when the stars of traditional medicine were shining. Famous doctors such as Zhang Zhongjing, Hua Tuo, Huangfu Mi, Wang Shuhe, and Ge Hong emerged one after another, and traditional Chinese medicine made great progress.

The advancement of medicine has reduced the probability of people getting sick and dying in May, which to a certain extent has weakened the chilling and sad atmosphere of this season.

It is against this background that even on an unlucky day like the fifth day of May, people have swept away the solemnity and heaviness of the past and invented many relaxed and lively entertainment activities.

The rituals of entertaining gods and exorcising ghosts during the Dragon Boat Festival have gradually evolved into entertainment activities to entertain people and entertain themselves.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, a Yuefu poem "Five Days Looking at Picking Up Poems" describing the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of May:

"The filaments represent good festivals, and the golden strands represent good fortune.

Jie Lu and Chu Ke, picking mugwort are different poets.

Fold the flowers to compete with the bright colors, wipe the dew to dye the fragrance.

She raised her eyebrows sideways and smiled softly.

"I present my jewelery to Yiluopu, and my pendant is like the riverside."

In this poem, the fifth day of May is no longer a day of extreme evil, but is called a "good festival" and a "good time". People are "coquettish", "smiling", "slanting" and "weird"

, immersed in the joy of the festival.

It can be seen that after the evolution of the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the folk customs of the Dragon Boat Festival have undergone significant changes.

In Ou Jiachong, through the unremitting efforts of traveler Ou Xing over the years, customs have changed and the evolution of Dragon Boat Festival folk customs has been greatly accelerated.

The scary atmosphere of the old Dragon Boat Festival has gradually dissipated, the festive atmosphere has become more enthusiastic, and folk activities have become more colorful.
Chapter completed!