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Duan Wu - The Dragon Boat Festival

China is a land of many festivals and popular celebrations. Among these, one of the most exciting and spectacular is Duan Wu or the Dragon Boat Festival. It is also called Duan Wu Jie in Chinese because in the Chinese diction, ‘Jie’ meaning festival. The festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls on the first week of June. It is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and also carries a very long tradition.

The history of Duan Wu goes back a long time. Regarding its origin, the most popular theory suggests that it was derived from the commemorative activities of a great poet of China, Qu Yuan. However, it is also suggested that the festival may be associated with the legendary dragon because two of the most significant activities of the festival, the Dragon Boat Racing and the eating of ‘zongzi’, are related to this fabled creature.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by exciting boat races where many enthusiastic participants row boats that are made out in the shape of dragons (and hence the name) in a frenzied race for the first position. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat, racing to reach the finish line first. It’s a sheer spectacle that will keep the onlooker simply awed. The dragon boats are really amazing to look at. As they row towards victory, the participants try 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.

This aspect of the Dragon Boat Festival has a meaning. The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs that attempt to rescue the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan is believed to have drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. The locals, in a commemorative gesture, throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. However, this culinary tribute is meant for the hero poet, rather than the fishes in the water. The act of scaring the fishes away with loud drumbeats is to make sure that the food reaches the person it is intended for. This later on turned into the custom of eating Zongzi and rice dumplings which now forms an integral part of the celebrations.

The celebrations during Duan Wu have a deeper significance like most other traditional festivals. It is a means to ward off evil and protect one’s loved ones from diseases for the rest of the year. This is achieved by different practices such as hanging herbs associated with good health on the front door, drinking nutritious concoctions and displaying portraits of Evil’s nemesis, Chung Kuei. Other interesting practices include trying to make an egg stand on its end at exactly 12:00 noon. The successful person will have a year of luck.