Dragon Boat Festival is a popular and traditional festival celebrated on the 5th day of 5th lunar month by Chinese. The festival is marked by holding dragon boat races,
eating zongzi (a kind of dumpling make of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves),
drinking yellow wine, hanging mugwort plants on doors and wearing sachet.
The dragon boat race is especially popular in the south of china because there are
many rivers and lakeside. The dragon boat race has a legend. It’s said that Qu
Yuan, a great patriotic poet of Chu, who was persecuted by some treacherous court
official of the time. He committed suicide in Miluo River without hesitation after hearing his motherland was annihilated and the day was on the 5th day of 5th lunar
month. The local people tried to salve Qu Yuan’s corpse, so that the dragon boat
race has been held since that time. Nowadays, it’s a national race for Chinese. I
watched a dragon boat race at my hometown when I was a child of nature. It was
held in Xiangjiang River Hunan Province. Racers carried a big wooden boat with a
image of dragon’s head on their shoulders then laid it in watertight compartments.
The racers in a dragon boat include a commander-in-chief, standing on the bow,
waved a pennant and song a race song. The drummer beat a drum to cheer the
rowers upon. The rowers tried their best to drive the boat as fast as possible. A
piece of red cloth was used as the finish line. When race boats reached the line of
sight, thousands of people were cheerfully. In 1980, dragon boat race was listed
into the state sports competition programs and has since been held every year. The
award is called "Qu Yuan Cup."
In early times, it was only sticky rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant
leaves and tied with colored thread, but now the fillings are more diversified,
including jujube and bean paste, fresh meat, and ham and egg yolk. If time permits,
people will soak glutinous rice, wash reed leaves and wrap up zongzi .The custom
of eating zongzi is now popular in North and South Korea, Japan and Southeast
Asian nations. The custom of eating zongzi is also linked to a legend of Qu Yuan.
When people heard that Qu Yuan has drowned himself in the Miluo River, they
threw zongzi into the river, in hope that the fish and other animals would not eat Qu
Yuan’s copse after eating too much of these foods. Year after year, it becomes a custom that people deliver their gratitude to Qu Yuan by eating zongzi on the 5th day of 5th lunar month.
