The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu jie, commemorates Chinese poet and patriot, Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), and is also a time to reflect on a healthy lifestyle. More importantly, it is a great opportunity for learning about Chinese history.
The Dragon Boat Festival celebration includes the eating of zongzi (sticky rice treats wrapped in bamboo leaves) and the drinking of realgar wine (xiónghuángjiǔ). By then, you are ready to watch the colorful dragon boats, so named because of the fierce Chinese dragon heads at the forefront of the boats.
Another tradition seen during the Dragon Boat Festival is the wearing of a perfumed pouch or medicine sachet around the neck, commonly called Xiang bao (香包). Both are meant to be a good luck talisman and to ward off evil, bad spirits, and even insects.
Dragon boat racing, an integral part of the festival, has spread around the world, and is quite exciting to watch. According to the-the International Dragon Boat Federation, international competitions have been held since 1976, the first year that international crews were invited to compete in the traditional races in Hong Kong.
The legend of Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan was the minister of the state of Chu, one of seven warring states in China’s first feudal dynasty fighting for dominance of the known civilized world. He supported the decision to fight against Qin, a warring state in northwest China. He tried to influence his king, along with a neighboring state, Qi, to go to war against Qin. This happened during China’s Warring States Period (476 BC – 221 BC).
But Qu Yuan was slandered by a member of the court, and was subsequently sent into exile by the king. But being a passionate man, and deeply in love with his country, he wrote many poems in the form of political allegory expressing his grief, including Li Sao (The Lament), Tian Wen (Asking Questions to the Heaven) and Jiu Ge (Nine Songs).
At the age of 62, he took his own life, throwing himself into the Miluo River (modern-day Hunan), where he drowned. Qu Yuan’s death is the inspiration behind the Dragon Boat Festival. In China, Dragon Boats re-enact the way Qu Yuan’s body was recovered by the people of Chu. Dumplings made of sticky rice mixed with meats are wrapped in leaves are eaten on this day. It is said the packets of rice were originally thrown in the water to distract the dragons and serpents from eating Qu Yuan’s body.
The Dragon Boat races are now a yearly event in many parts of the world
From Rockett’s Landing in Richmond, Virginia, to Mooney’s Bay Park in downtown Ottawa, Canada, dragon boat races are held around the world, and not all of them are on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. But they all do celebrate the original intent of the Dragon Boat Festival.
Dragon boats are canoes about 40-feet long. The most popular dragon boat set-up has 10 rows of seats for 20 paddlers sitting side-by-side, a drummer, or caller who sits in the front of the boat and pounds the rowing rhythm out on a drum, and in the back, a steersman (sweep) who guides the boat.
The dragon head and tail are only attached to the canoe for a race. During a ceremony preceding a race, a Taoist Priest or community leader will be called upon to dot the dragon eyes with red paint, a symbolic event that brings the dragon to life. For the rest of the year, the dragon head and tail are stored, and the boat looks like a long canoe.
With summer around the corner, dragon boat races are on the calendar in many parts of the U.S., Canada and around the world. The International Dragon Boat Federation has a calendar of events that is kept up to date with all the latest competitions, globally.
