The Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival, A Chinese holiday is gaining worldwide popularity, It is also called Double Fifth Festival( Double Fifth Festival is 端午节in Mandarin) is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar.

The Dragon Boat Festival dating back to the Warring States Period in 227 B.C. The festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a minister in the service of the Chu Emperor. Despondently the corruption at court, Qu threw himself into Mi Lo River. Townspeople jumped into their boats and tried in vain to save him. Then, hoping to distract hungry fish from his body, the people scattered rice on the water.

Over the years, the story of Qu’s demise transformed into the traditions of racing dragon boats and eating zongzi – a kind of rice wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Dragon Boat race

Traditions At the center of this festival are the dragon boat races. Competing teams drive their colorful dragon boats forward to the rhythm of beating drums. These exciting races were inspired by the townspeople’s valiant attempts to rescue Qu Yuan from the Mi Lo River. This tradition has remained unbroken for centuries.

Zongzi

A very popular dish during the Dragon Boat festival is zongzi .This tasty dish consists of rice dumplings with meat, peanut, egg yolk, or other fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves. The tradition of zongzi is meant to remind us of the town fishermen scattering rice across the water of the Mi Low River in order to appease the river dragons so that they would not devour Qu Yuan.

Let us celebrate the dragon festival together and wish everybody better and healthier all through the year.

Vocabulary:

duān wǔ jié
端      午 节        Dragon Boat Festival     n.

sài lóng zhōu
赛   龙  舟         dragon boat race          n.

zòng zi
粽   子               Zongzi                         n.