Chinese Traditional Festivals - Dragon Boat Festival - By: venturiwang

Dragon Boat Festival is another traditional festival in China and commonly falls on the 5th, May of Chinese lunar month, therefore it has another name "Double Fifth Festival".
The Original of Dragon Boat Festival
Qu Yuan, a great poet in ancient China, was a loyal and upright minister in the kingdom of Chu located in Hunan and Hubei provinces today. He was esteemed for his wise advises that had brought peace and prosperity to the kingdom Chu. However, later he was hurt by a dishonest and corrupt vilified and dismissed from his position. Qu Yuan was so disappointed and felt the country was going to corrupt that grasped a large stone and leaped into the Mi Lo river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. There were fishermen wanted to save this great man but after they jumped into the river to find Qu Yuan, they were not found his body. At last, the Chu kingdom conquered by another kingdom Qin.
The Chu people were so sad for Qu Yuan's death that threw rice into the Mi Lu river to feed the hungry fishes and prevent them eating his body for mourning him on the 5th, May each year.

The Customs on Dragon Boat Festival
Zongzi, a glutinous rice dumpling and bamboo leaves wrapping, were eaten by people to mean the rice offerings to QuYuan. This custom is passing until now and variety Zongzi are created by people, like eggs, jujubes, fruits, walnuts, meats and so forth filling in them.
Dragon-boat race, this is an activity that should be held on the river and symbolize the attempts to rescue and recover the Quan Yuan's body and another custom for memory him. It is the most exciting part of the festival. The boats are usually decorated like a dragon and ranging from 40 to 100 feet in length and the head shaped like open-mouthed dragons while vivid dragon tail end on the sterns. This competition needs many rowers' power and a drummer and flag-catcher according to the boats' size. People whether competitors or audiences who join this activity will feel exciting and happy.

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