Dragon Boat Festival Customs

Why can’t people say “Happy” during the Dragon Boat Festival, only say “Ankang”? (Ankang means peace and healthy.)

Ancient books record that the fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a bad day. From this day, the weather is hot and worms are breeding.
So people eat sticky rice dumplings, wear sachets, drink realgar wine, hang wormwood, row a dragon boat … in the most solemn and warmest way to avoid the five poisons and expel evil.

Sachets: a small scented cloth bag filled with herbs, potpourri, or aromatic ingredients. Realgar: an arsenic sulfide mineral, also known as “ruby sulphur” or “ruby of arsenic”. Wormwood: Artemisia absinthium.


In addition to these, we also convey blessings to Friends and relatives. You can only say “Dragon Boat Festival Ankang”, but not “Happy Dragon Boat Festival”.

In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate a politician of Chu: Qu Yuan, who is dead on this day.

In Qu Yuan’s view, the greatness of the country is extremely important. In the face of the invasion of his motherland, he was devastated. In the irretrievable circumstances, he committed suicide in the Miluo River and wrote a magnificent poem with his life.

After that, on that day, people rowed dragon boats to commemorate it. By rowing a dragon boat to disperse the fish to prevent the fish from eating Qu Yuan’s body.

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