The Dragon Boat Festival is a lunar holiday, occurring on the fifth day ofthe fifth lunar month.
The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated inChina, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival iscelebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row theirboats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.
The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs toattempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifthday of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bambooleaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat therice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eatingtzungtzu and rice dumplings.
The celebration's is a time for protection from evil and disease for therest of the year. It is done so by different practices such as hanging healthyherbs on the front door, drinking nutritious concoctions, and displayingportraits of evil's nemesis, Chung Kuei. If one manages to stand an egg on it'send at exactly 12:00 noon, the following year will be a lucky one.
At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the area we now know as China had falleninto a state of fragmentation and conflict. While the Zhou dynasty had ruled forseveral centuries, several other states, originally feudal domains, tried tocarve out their own kingdoms. The state of Qin would eventually emerge thevictor and unify all of China under one rule for the first time in history.
Qu Yuan served as minister to the Zhou Emperor. A wise and articulate man,he was loved by the common people. He did much to fight against the rampantcorruption that plagued the court-- thereby earning the envy and fear of otherofficials. Therefore, when he urged the emperor to avoid conflict with the QinKingdom, the officials pressured the Emperor to have him removed from service.In exile, he traveled, taught and wrote for several years. Hearing that the Zhouhad been defeated by the Qin, he fell into despair and threw himself into theMilou River. His last poem reads:
Many a heavy sigh I have in my despair,Grieving that I was born in such anunlucky time.I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix chariot,And waited forthe wind to come,to sour up on my journey
As he was so loved by the people, fishermen rushed out in long boats,beating drums to scare the fish away, and throwing zong zi into the water tofeed braver fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.
The Modern Dragon Boat Festival started from that time to this day, peoplecommemorated Qu Yuan through Dragon Boat Races, eating zong zi, and severalother activities, on the anniversary of his death: the fifth day of the fifthlunar month.
Dragon Boat races are the most exciting part of the festival, drawingcrowds of spectators. Dragon Boats are generally brightly painted and decoratedcanoes. Ranging anywhere from 40 to 100 feet in length, their heads are shapedlike open-mouthed dragons, while the sterns end with a scaly tail. Depending onthe length, up to 80 rowers can power the boat. A drummer and flag-catcher standat the front of the boat. Before a dragon boat enters competition, it must be“brought to life” by painting the eyes in a sacred ceremony. Races can have anynumber of boats competing, with the winner being the first team to grab a flagat the end of the course. Annual races take place all over China, Hong Kong,Macao, Taiwan, and other overseas Chinese communities.
Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient traditional festivals, began in theSpring and Autumn period, has been 20__ years of history. Dragon Boat Festivaloriginated from Qu Yuan's story: Qu Yuan advocated by the virtuous andEmpowerment, Fuguoqiangbing, advocated joint Qi Kang Qin, it was noble son ofLan and others strongly opposed, the result being greedy Qu Yuan has resigned,and was driven out of capital, exiled to Yuan, Xiang River. 278 BC, the Qinbreak Chu Kyoto. Qu Yuan saw their country invaded, Xinrudaoge, but still couldnot bear to give up their own country, in the May 5, the pen never wrote a“Huaisha”, the bouldering vote Miluo River body death, taking our own livescomposed a magnificent song of patriotism movement. Legend of Qu Yuan's death,the state of Chu people abnormal grief, have rushed to pay tribute to Qu YuanMiluo River. Fishermen are drawn from the vessel, in the river salvage his realbody back and forth. One fisherman come prepared for Qu Yuan's rice balls, eggsand other food, “thump, thump” land thrown into the river, saying it was fed tofish, crab, lobster, they will not bite Qu doctor's health. People see belowfollowed suit. An old doctor was brought an altar Announcements, updates, pouredinto the river, saying that the water should be drug halo dragon beast, so asnot to hurt the doctor bent. Later, as the dragon balls for fear of food, peoplecome up with neem leaves Ssambap, outer wrapped wire color has developed intozongzi. After the fifth day of May of each year, there is a dragon boat races,eating dumplings, drink Announcements, updates, customs, in order to commemoratethe patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
Dragon Boat Festival is a tradition to eat dumplings. Whenever the fifthday of May, my mother would pack a number of dumplings, let us satisfy theirappetites. Mama's dumplings packages are particularly tasty, one end of thetable, the smell of the fragrance comes, I will be devoured his brother and Dadhave to eat, will not rest until eat.
The Dragon Boat Festival kids wear Sachet, legends evil blast meaningflooding, is actually a window dressing for the first lapel. Sachet containingcinnabar, realgar, incense medicine, outsourcing to cloth, fragrance lovers, andthen to buckle into a five-color silk string cable for a variety of differentshapes, form a string, all kinds, cute.
Wearing a sachet, relish in eating the fragrant rice dumplings, the DragonBoat Festival, I have more heart indescribably happy. Today, Dragon BoatFestival has been the national statutory holiday and that China's folk customshanded down from generation to generation!
The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated (falls)on the fifth day of the fifthmonth of Chinese lunar calendar.
As one of the traditional Chinese festivals, it has been enjoying greatpopularity in honor of the Chinese great poet Qu Yuan living in the WarringStates Period. He committed suicide by drowning himself in Miluo River forpolitical reasons. The local people decided to throw a particular food called“Zongzi” into the river to prevent fish eating his body.
Today, people eat Zongzi, have dragon boat races and wear colorful threadsaround wrists to bring good luck. And now it has become one of the nationalholidays in China.
Dragon boat festival, often known as tuen ng festival or duan wu festival, is a traditional chinese festival held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the chinese calendar. it is also known as the double fifth.[citation needed] it has since been celebrated, in various ways, in other parts of east asia as well, most notably korea.
The exact origins of duan wu are unclear, but one traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the chinese poet qu yuan of the warring states period. he committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he was disgusted by the corruption of the chu government. the local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fishes to prevent them from eating qus body. they also sat on dragon boats, and tried to scare the fishes away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce looking dragon-head in the front of the boat.
In the early years of the chinese republic, duan wu was also celebrated as "poets day", due to qu yuans status as chinas first poet of personal renown.
Today, people eat zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fishes) and race dragon boats in memory of qus dramatic death.
Thanks a lot for your last letter, in which you asked me about the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese festival. Here is something about it.
Over a thousand years ago, there was a famous poem called Qu Yuan in China. He cared about the common people as well as the whole country, so he did a lot for them. However, he was not satisfied with the political situation at that time. What’s worse, he was unable to change it. At last, he felt so hopeless that he decided to take his own life. Finally, he jumped into the Miluo River and drowned. In memory of him, people created the Dragon Boat Festival.
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, so it is also called the Double Fifth Festival. It usually comes in June. In China, it has been a public holiday, so we have 3 days off. On that day, we usually eat zongzi, a kind of traditional Chinese food, which is made of glutinous rice (stuffed with different things). It tastes really delicious. We also drink xionghua wine. It’s said that it can keep us from evil spirits. To celebrate this festival, what’s more, we have many activities. The most popular one is dragon boat races. People usually take active part in them and enjoy themselves a lot during the races.
I’m really glad that you’re interested in our Dragon Boat Festival. If you want to know more about it, I’d like to send you some photos that I took during the festival last year. I hope they will be helpful.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.