Dragon Boat Festival
The annual Dragon Boat Festival, commemorating the dead, is observed primarily in central and southern China. It occurs on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and falls between 28 May and 25 June in the Western calendar. During this festival, people along the seacoasts and major rivers compete in races in boats made from wooden planks and carved with dragon heads and tails.
A team of young adult males rows the boats, directed by a team leader who synchronizes their action with a big drum. While racing dragon boats in competition, the competitors occasionally toss triangular-shaped rice cakes, typically made from glutinous rice with meat or sweet bean paste stuffing and wrapped in bamboo leaves, into the water. Popular folktale attributes this festival to the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who lived in the third and second centuries BCE in the southern kingdom of Chu during late Zhou dynasty (1045–246 BCE). According to legend, Qu was dissatisfied with the ineptness of the Chu king. When the king spurned his repeated advice, Qu threw himself into a river in today's Hunan Province. The boat racing is said to have originated from the attempt to recover his body. Throwing rice cakes symbolizes a sacrificial offering to Qu.
Further Reading
Bodde, Derk. (1975) Festivals in Classical China: New Year and Other Annual Observances during the Han Dynasty, 206 B.C.–A.D. 220. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Eberhard, Wolfram. (1958) Chinese Festivals. New York: Abelard-Schuman.
——. (1968) The Local Cultures of South and East China. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill.
Men row a dragon boat in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China, in c. 1996. (KEREN SU/CORBIS)This is the complete article, containing 266 words
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