Dragon Boat Festival

 

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival or Double Fifth Festival, is a traditional Chinese holiday that occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar. This year, 2024, the Dragon Boat Festival fell on June 10th.

The festival is a celebration of Chinese culture, courage, and national identity. It integrates elements of praying for good luck, warding off evil spirits, and taking respite from the summer heat. In September 2009, UNESCO officially approved the inclusion of the Dragon Boat Festival in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, becoming the first Chinese holiday to be selected.

Here are some of the key traditions associated with the Dragon Boat Festival:

• Dragon Boat Races: The most well-known tradition is the dragon boat races, which involve long, ornately decorated canoes paddled by teams of up to 20 people. The races are said to commemorate the efforts of people who tried to rescue the Chinese poet Qu Yuan from drowning.
• Zongzi (粽子): Zongzi are pyramid-shaped rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and filled with various ingredients such as red dates, pork, mung beans, and salted duck egg yolk. The tradition of eating zongzi is said to have originated from the attempt to throw food into the river to distract the river creatures from eating Qu Yuan's body.
• Drinking Realgar Wine (雄黄酒): Realgar wine is a traditional Chinese alcoholic beverage made with realgar, a mineral compound historically believed to have medicinal properties. It is traditionally consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival to ward off evil spirits and snakes.
• Wearing Wu Cha (五彩丝线): Wu Cha are silk threads of various colors worn on the wrist or ankle during the Dragon Boat Festival. They are believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.