A rare nickname for the Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival, celebrated in my country, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Since the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the month of Wu (noon), the fifth day is also called the "noon day." The "Fengtu Ji" (Book of Customs and Local Records) states that the Dragon Boat Festival in midsummer marks the beginning of the Duan (end of the lunar year), meaning the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the "Double Fifth Festival."

During the Dragon Boat Festival, summer has arrived. A Fuzhou proverb goes, "After eating Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings, winter clothes can be given away." The sunlight is particularly strong at noon, and because noon is the Yangchen (Yangchen), the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the "Duanyang Festival." During the Republic of China era, it was designated the "Summer Festival." This notion originated from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties 3,000 years ago. At that time, the "Summer Solstice" was also known as the "Dragon Boat Festival." Han E of the Tang Dynasty wrote in his "Suihua Jili" (Book of Suihua Jili): "When the sun is at its highest point in the sun, it is midsummer." This is the underlying principle.

The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the "Daughter's Day." According to the "Daxing County Chronicles" from the Kangxi period of the early Qing Dynasty, on May 5th, young girls were required to wear talismans and pomegranate flowers in their hair. Married girls were also allowed to return to their parents' homes, hence the name "Daughter's Day."

As for the Dragon Boat Festival's "Heavenly Center Festival," this is based on Volume 20 of Tian Rucheng's "Xihu Youlan Zhiyu" from the Ming Dynasty, which states: "The Dragon Boat Festival is the Heavenly Center Festival. People make rice dumplings with millet and sorghum and tie them with five-colored silk." The most unique nicknames for the Dragon Boat Festival are "Dila Festival" and "Dodge Five Festival." According to the "Yunji Qiqian," in Taoism, the fifth day of the fifth month is not called the Dragon Boat Festival, but "Dila Festival," while the first day of the first lunar month is called "Tianla Festival."

Because the Dragon Boat Festival begins, the scorching summer heat approaches, the five poisonous creatures (snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads, and geckos) breed, and plagues and other diseases begin to spread among humans. Therefore, the ancients called May the "Evil Month." Therefore, in ancient times, in some places, on the Dragon Boat Festival, parents would send children under one year old to their grandmother's house to hide in order to avoid evil spirits and poisons, hence the name "Hiding from the Dragon Boat Festival".