Dragon boating in the Hakka folk pond has been passed down for more than 500 years, and the dragon boat launching ceremony in early May is full of feelings.
On the first day of May, the dragon god ceremony was full of feelings, the scene was spectacular and shocking, and the national intangible cultural heritage, Yangcun Taipingbao dragon boat grand event was unveiled.
Taipingbao Dragon Boat Club is a provincial intangible cultural heritage, which has been passed down for more than 500 years, is a unique Hakka folk activity, reflecting the spirit of Hakka unity and cooperation, honesty and justice, dare to fight, and win first.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Dragon Boat Festival was an important event for the Hakka people in Gannan to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, which originated during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty and has been passed down to the present day. The Yangcun Dragon Boat Race is held in a pond with an area of only 15 acres in Yangcun Village, Yangcun Town, which is unique in the dragon boat event in the south of the Jiangnan.
For more than 500 years, the Taipingbao Dragon Boat Association has retained traditional folk activities such as worshiping the dragon god, inviting the dragon god, dragon boat meeting, sweeping away evil spirits, finals, cruise ships, returning the dragon gods, and sending cruise ducks.
Yangcun Town, Longnan County, located under the Jiulian Mountain, is known as the first town on the edge of Gan and Guangdong, known as Taipingbao in ancient times, where it not only has the world-famous Hakka characteristic buildings such as Yanyiwei, Wushiwei, and Taipingqiao, but also has a unique Taipingbao Dragon Boat Club.
Longnan Yangcun Dragon Boat Race is an intangible cultural heritage of Jiangxi Province.
Yangcun Dragon Boat Race is also known as Taiping Dragon Boat Race and Taipingbao Dragon Boat Event. It has a long history, a large scale, a wide range and a long duration, and the ceremonies are grand, enthusiastic and spectacular. Therefore, it not only has a broad mass base, but also an opportunity for socializing and enhancing social unity, with sports, culture, economy, inheritance of Hakka spirit and consolidation of Hakka friendship in the world.
The dragon boat race in Hakka Longnan is the most distinctive feature of the Taipingbao Dragon Boat Club in Yangcun Town. The Taipingbao Dragon Boat Association is an annual Dragon Boat Festival in Yangcun where the Hakka people of Longnan County worship the dragon god and pray for blessings and blessings in Yangcun in the form of dragon boat racing. The dragon boat festival lasts for 5 days, the first day of May is to invite the dragon god and the dragon boat to launch, the second day of the junior high school is the time for the registration of the participating fleets, the third day of the junior high school is the "dragon boat meeting", from the fourth to the fifth morning of the first month of May is to enter the village to sweep away evil spirits, by villagers wearing uniform costumes to form an honor guard, the two hold two dragon gods (dragon boat dragon heads), followed by a long golden dragon dance, banging gongs and drums, setting off firecrackers all the way, crossing streets and alleys, to the key villages near the competition venue to sweep away evil spirits. Everywhere he went, the drums sounded in unison, sweeping away evil spirits and praying for blessings. When the parade passed by the road, villagers set off firecrackers to welcome the parade, killed chickens and fetched snow on the spot, stained chicken blood with paper, and draped the dragon boat dragon head to sweep away evil spirits and pray for blessings. Entering the village to sweep away evil spirits, the parade began at 6:30 a.m. and lasted until 11 o'clock.
The afternoon of the fifth day of the new year is the most exciting time of the Dragon Boat Festival, where more than a dozen teams will compete in fierce championship races.
Yangcun Taipingbao Dragon Boat Club ancient legend:
During the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty (1488-1505 AD), Lai Sizhang, the eighth ancestor of the Taochuan Lai clan in Yangcun, and his nephew Lai Zhenxiang put wooden rafts to Jiujiang, and Lai Zhenxiang's wood was quickly sold out, while Lai Sizhang's Qumu Laoshan was parked by the river for many days without interest. One day, suddenly two logs floated towards him, Lai Sizhang impatiently pushed them out, and soon the wood floated back, he pushed it away and came back. So many times, as if the double dragon was playing, he reverently made a wish to the two logs that floated back: "Dragon God, Dragon God!" If you can bless my wood for a good price, I will return to carve your golden body and row every year. ”
The next day, sure enough, someone who looked like an official came to the riverside to find Lai Sizhang, saying that the royal palace needed bent wood and old cedar carvings. Lai Sizhang learned of the royal need and immediately donated generously. The emperor, seeing that he was loyal to the imperial court, ordered to "open a warehouse and take a hat". That is, each product official hat in the warehouse is allowed to take one of them, and if he gets a few official hats, he will be given several product officials. However, the honest and generous Lai Sizhang did not take an official hat, but only an old man's cape hat, so he was awarded the title of "Old Man of the World". The "old man of the world" has the privilege of being an official and adding three levels. So on the way back, many officials rushed to visit Lai Sizhang, and Lai Sizhang received a lot of gifts from it. After returning to Yang Village, Lai Sizhang really fulfilled the promise he made in front of the dragon god, carved two golden bodies of the dragon god, and built a temple to worship.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Lai Sizhang rowed a boat on the Dongshui River near his Wushi village to commemorate the occasion. In order to inherit his father's legacy, his eldest son held a dragon boat race in the small mountain village of Wushi Village, Woli. Due to the small site and shallow water, a 15-acre pond was excavated under the carp village in Yangcunxu and designated as the site for dragon boat racing.
