The Origins Of The Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional holiday that celebrates Chinese cultures and in celebrated all over Asia. Known as the Duanwu Festival in Mandarin and the Tuen Ng Festival in Cantonese is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calender, which in 2009 falls on May 28 and in 2010 on June 16.

The origins of the Dragon Boat Festival are in dispute. One story holds that the festival was traditionally held to commemorates the death of the poet Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was a member of the ancient royal family who was banished for treason. While in exile, he wrote poetry until he killed himself after China was conquered on the fifth day of the fifth month.

The other theory on the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival comes from the former territory of the state of Wu and commemorates Wu Zixu. Wu Zixu was an advisor whose advice was ignored by the King. Wu Zixu committed suicide and his body was thrown in the river on the fifth day of the fifth ninth. Wu Zixu was treated after his death as a river god.

The last theory suggests that the Dragon Boat Festival celebrates the superimposed holiday that combines the stories of Qu Yuan and Wu Zixu. Lastly, some argue that the Dragon Boat Festival simply is a celebration of the ancient worship of dragons.

Qu Yuan [Chu Yuan] – The Great Poet

Chu Yuan [Qu Yuan ] (340?-278 b.c.), the chief poet in the Songs of Chu, was a member of the ruling house, a stateman and diplomat. In his youth, he has a brilliant official career and was made a court minister and at one time the Chu envoy to Chi (in Shantung), a great neiboring state. But Chu Yuan’s comet-like success incurred the jealousy of his fellow ministers, who slandered and intrigued against him. In consequence Chu Yuan lost the king’s favor and was dismissed from office. There were several ups and downs in his career – for after each banishment he was recalled to court, only to be again rebuffed and disgraced. In the meantime, his country was in danger. Failing to heed Chu Yuan’s advice, the king of Chu foolishly went to a conference with the king of Chin (in Shensi), the most powerful military state in that period; he was held there by the Chin army and died in captivity. His son, the new king, instead of avenging his father’s death, made a humiliating peace with his enemy. This, however, did not deter Chin’s aggressive designs against Chu, and Chu Yuan, who had started his exile as a result of his political failure, lived long enough to see the capital of his state plundered and ruined by the conquering army of Chin in 278 b.c. At that time, Chu Yuan was already an old man of over sixty, and the fall of the Chu capital was the last blow to his patriotic hope. He does not seem to have long survived his diaster, for the next we hear of him is that he had drowned himself in the river Mi-lo.

Tradition says that his death occurred on the fifth day of the fifth moon (month). Ever since, the day is celebrated as the Day of Dragon Boat Festival to commemorate his drowning.

As the first known great poet in China, Chu Yuan has been called the father of Chinese poetry and has become, in the opinion of some, a national culture hero.

Celebration of 2010 Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

Chinese people celebrate Dragon Boat Festival by Eating Zong zi and Paddling a Dragon Boat.

Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month. But that’s not May 5th. This holiday is calculated according to the lunar calendar.

The next Dragon Boat Festival is June 16, 2010. You still have time to plan some fun activities for your children!

Along with the Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival is one of the biggest traditional holidays in China. The origin of this holiday is a bit troubling — a poet Qu Yuan 屈原 (about 300 BC) killed himself by jumping into the river on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. A very patriotic person, Qu Yuan attracted the wrath of the king by stating his concerns about the govenrment. Later when his country was overrun by enemy solidiers, the ever loyal poet killed himself out of grief for the pain his country was facing.

You may want to be selective about what you share with your children about this holiday, especially if they are sensitive. It’s not a very happy story.

The Chinese name of this holiday is Duan Wu Jie 端午节 or “Double Five Holiday.”

The Featured Things of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat

The custom of Dragon Boat Race might begin from the southern China. They selected the 5rh lunar day of the 5th lunar month as the totem ceremony. The dragon was the main symbol on the totem, because Chinese thought they were son of dragon. They also made dragon-like canoe. Later, Chinese connected this custom with Duan-Wu festival. Since this was the event only in the southern China. This might be why Dragon Boat Race doesn’t that popular in entire China today. But we can see yearly Dragon Boat Race events in Honk Hong and Taiwan. The picture shows a person lies on the top of dragon head of the boat to prepare to catch the flag of target to win the race.

Now, the Dragon Boat Race becomes an international event. This sport is popular in USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Honk Hong, Singapore etc. Some organization’s events aren’t held around the Dragon Boat Festival. Some are in July, August or September. You need to check their websites for the schedules.

The Delicious Food-Zongzi

One saying the fishermen threw bamboo-food into the river for Chiu Yuan. The fishermen kept the custom on on the 5th day of 5th lunar month every year. Until Late Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), one outsider came and acclaimed fisherman’s behavior, but recommended to wrap the food with leaves and tie with color silky rope, which can scare fish away. So the Chiu Yuan can unwrap the leaves to eat the food.

Obviously, the Zong-zi, which Chinese eat on the the Dragon Boat Day period, is like the food for Chiu Yuan. Zong-zi is make of steamed glutinous sweet rice mixing with meat and condiment wrapped in the bamboo leaves. There are salty, sweet, hot or cold different variety of Zong-Zi today. You can find Zong-Zi in Chinese restaurants providing Dim-Sum lunch or same Chinese diners in Chinese communities in USA.

The Standup Egg

The Dragon Boat Day is usually in June, which is Horse month. Horse hour in astrology is from 11:00 AM to 13:00 PM. They said that you will be lucky for the coming year if you can make an egg standing up during Horse hour on the Dragon Boat Day.

Parents like to let their children to try to make the egg standing up on the Dragon Boat Day. Certainly, the standing up egg competition will be held at noon in many places. They said that it’s will be easier to make a standing up egg at noon. Many try to cheat on the ground, eggshell or inside egg to in order to win the competition.

People had looked for the scientific explanation. The egg can standup easily is because the Dragon Boat Day is close to the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. The summer solstice occurs when the Earth’s axis tilts the most toward the sun, causing the sun to be farthest north at noon. Sun reaches to the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere on the day of summer solstice. Before sun travels back to the southern hemisphere, it seems as if the sun stands still. When the gravitation between sun and earth are pulled each other to the most, an egg can stand up easier.

Actually, the Dragon Boat Day is not close to the summer solstice every year. Because the lunar leap months, the Dragon Boat Day usually is close to summer solstice every three years.

The Auspicious Leaves

The 5th lunar month is marked as “Poison” month in Chinese Farmer’s Calendar. This is because the gem, insect, fly, mosquito, and pest are active in this summer month and people is easy to catch infectious disease. On the Dragon Boat Day, Chinese put the leaves of Acorus and Artemisia on the doors or windows to repel insect, fly, flea and moth away from the house. Those leaves have anti-poison function and can prevent an epidemic.

The leaves of Acorus are linear, sword-like, glossy, evergreen and lush. Artemisia belongs to daisy family with fern-like leaves.

In Tan Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), Rebel Huang scouted the target village and prepared the next attack in 5th lunar month. He saw a woman carrying a boy in her one arm and holding the another boy’s hand was running. Rebel Huang asked her why running. She said, “We heard Bandit Huang is coming, we need to run for our lives.” Huang asked again, “Why carrying one in the arm, but holding another with hand?”. The woman said, “The one in the arm is the only son of my husband’s elder brother. The other one is my son. In case, I cannot run quickly enough, I will drop my son and save my husband brother son.” Rebel Huang was very touching, then told her that “Go home quickly and put Acorus and Artemisia on your door, then rebel forces won’t hurt your family.” She returned to the village and told some people. On the 5th day of 5th lunar month, Rebel Huang’s forces entered the village, all the families with Acorus and Artemisia on the door were safe. The custom keeps since then.

The Incense Bag

Many contagious disease and plague had found in the 5th lunar month in the Chinese history. Besides putting the Acorus and Artemisia on the doors or windows, Chinese make the incense bag and hang on the neck to prevent from contagious disease and keep evil spirit away.

The incense bag are made by hand. Chinese put the powder of Acorus and Artemisia with some other fragrance stuff into different kind of sewing bags. Therefore the incense bag can prevent an epidemic as the leaves of Acorus and Artemisia. The popular incense bags was 12 horoscope animals. Today, we can find many different auspicious symbols, many other animals, fish, flower, bird, even the cartoon characters. Long time ago, Chinese women liked to make incense bag for children.

The Inauspicious Day

The 5th lunar month is a bad month. The 5th day of the month is an inauspicious day, because many famous people died on this day in Chinese history. One customary book recorded, “if a baby’s born on this day, baby boy brings bad luck to dad and baby girl brings bad luck to mom.” It happened that parent killed the baby born on this day before.

One famous tragedy story about the 5th day of 5th lunar month happened in Han Dynasty. A 14-yar old girl Tsao Er’s father were drowned in the river. The girl cried along the river and looked for her father for 17 days. On the first day of 5th lunar month, the girl jumped into the river. On the 5th day of 5th lunar month, people found the girl’s body and her father’s body holding together and floating on the river. People were very touching and prayed for them.

The Wine and Water

They said that you will become healthier to drink the spring water from the well on the Dragon Boat Day during Horse hour (11.00 AM to 13.00 PM). The story is from late Ming dynasty. A general brought his troop to the hill and couldn’t find the water for days. He prayed to the heaven, then struck his sword into the ground and the water spurted out on the 5th day of 5th lunar month at noon.

Once Chinese drank Strong Yellow Wine to clean up the gem in the body on the Dragon Boat Day. The Strong Yellow Wine is made of rice. It’s a tonic wine and not good for children. Therefore adult just wipe the children forehead with the Strong Yellow Wine. They believe that will make children healthier and won’t catch the 5th lunar month disease.

The Quyuan Sad Story of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

In China, the Dragon Boat Festival memorializes the Chinese patriotic poet Chiu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC or 343-290 B.C.), who committed suicide by jumping into the river after tying himself with big rock on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.

Chiu Yuan was the number one advisor of the kingdom of Chu . But people were jealous his position and said lots of bad words on his back. The king wouldn’t take his advice in the end and was killed by the enemy of neighbor kingdom. The new king continued to enjoy the luxury life and didn’t like Chiu Yuan either. Later, Chiu Yuan was exiled. He wrote many patriotic poem after then.

Chiu Yuan met a fisherman, who never cared about the country and quite satisfied his life. Chiu Yuan thought that the king wouldn’t run the country, people only cared about themselves, nobody cared the future of the country and to live is meaningless. So he killed himself by drowning himself in the river. Many fishermen tried to rescue him, but the body is never found. Fishermen worried about fish would eat his body. So they threw food into the river to feed the fish. Plus, they tried to scare fish away by splashing the water with their paddles and beating the drums on the long narrow boats.

Then the dragon was added into the story. Fishermen believed there was a water-dragon under the river. One man poured down a big jar of strong yellow wine (made of rice). Later, a drunken dragon-like fish floated on the river. One piece of Chiu Yuan’s clothing was found in-between the whisker of the water-dragon.

2010 Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is on 16th June

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Chinese call this day as Duan-Wu . Duan means beginning. Wu means Horse month in Chinese calendar. The Horse month usually begins on June 5th or June 6th in the Gregorian calendar. That means Dragon Boat Festival should be held in June, unless that year has Leap Month in the Chinese lunar calendar.