The Dragon Boat Festival strengthens family ties and contributes to the establishment of a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. Likewise, it stimulates the expression of imagination and creativity, helping to revive the feeling of cultural identity.
When is celebrated?
China’s Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu, is also called the Double Five Festival. It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. Of the many traditional Chinese festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival has been one of the most important celebrated by the Chinese for more than 2,000 years.
What do you celebrate?
It commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a poet of the Warring States period (475-221 BC) who committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River in Hunan province, after his maternal kingdom fell into enemy hands.
Legend has it that people in boats rushed to the site where he had drowned and threw Zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped in reed leaves) so that the fish would not feed on Qu’s body.
Since then, the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is celebrated as the Dragon Boat Festival. People hold boat races and prepare Zongzi in memory of Qu’s virtue and his beautiful poems.
Who celebrates the Dragon Boat Festival?
It is mainly celebrated by various ethnic groups in China, especially in the regions of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Although the festivities vary from one place to another, they have common characteristics, such as an offering to a local hero and the celebration of sports competitions such as regattas and dragon boat rides, or target shooting with willow branches; of meals based on rice balls, eggs and sulfurous red wine; and folkloric shows in which operas and songs are performed, as well as unicorn dances.
As it is celebrated?
Participants ward off evil by bathing in water scented with flowers, dressing in five-color silk, hanging bouquets of artemisia and acorus on the lintel of the doors of their homes, and pasting paper-cut images on the windows.
Who are the heroes of the Dragon Boat Festival?
In the provinces of Hubei and Hunan, the memory of the poet Qu Yuan is venerated.
In southern China, Wu Zixu is remembered, an old man who, according to legend, died while killing a dragon in Guizhou province.
In Yunan province, the Dai community exalts the memory of Yan Hongwo.
With information from UNESCO and China Cultural Center
