Hakka’s Dragon Boat Festival Customs
Yongding, Fujian, May 30 (Huang Qiuping Tang Yuzhou Li Changliu) As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, villagers in Hongkeng Village, Hukeng Town, yongding county, Longyan City, Fujian Province are busy hanging mugwort leaves, kudzu vines and making zongzi.
Dragon Boat Festival is the annual "Zongzi Festival" and "May Festival" of the Hakkas, and it is one of the three major festivals of the Hakkas in a year. In the local Dragon Boat Festival, besides traditional customs such as making zongzi and dragon boat racing, there are also local folk customs.
Yongding county has a long history of Hakka culture. Hakka people generally call the Dragon Boat Festival "May Festival". Before sunrise on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, almost every Hakka household sweeps the courtyard, and puts kudzu vine, calamus and mugwort leaves in the lintel and hangs them in the hall to avoid evil spirits.
"Our Hakka people’s custom of Dragon Boat Festival is to hang mugwort and kudzu vine, mainly to pray for peace and smoothness. mugwort and kudzu vine have the function of expelling poison and evil spirits, and more importantly, they have the function of expelling poison and avoiding plague, which is of medical and scientific value to our current traditional medicine." Lin Rigeng, a villager from Hongkeng Village, Hukeng Town, yongding county, said.
Hakkas also have the custom of wearing sachets during the Dragon Boat Festival, especially when children wear sachets to ward off evil spirits and plague. The sachets contain cinnabar, wormwood, etc., which are wrapped in red cloth and are fragrant. They are woven into ropes with colorful ropes and made into various shapes, forming a string, which is exquisite and eye-catching.
Lin Jia’s grandmother in Hongkeng Village, Hukeng Town insists on making sachets for her grandchildren and little grandchildren every year, so that they can wear them on the Dragon Boat Festival. According to Lin Apo, although there are many sachets on the market now, she feels that it is more thoughtful to make them by herself. She will sew the blessings into the sachets one by one, hoping to bring peace and happiness to the children. (End)
