The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most important traditional Chinese holidays, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, corresponding to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar. For this reason, it is also known as Double Fifth Festival. In 2023, the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on June 22.
The holiday has ancient origins, and different stories are associated with the festival. The most popular one links the Dragon Boat Festival with the death of Qu Yuan, a poet and minister from the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period. Qu Yuan was born in 340 BCE and was a member of the royal family of Chu. After being sent into exile, Qu Yuan collected ancient legends and folk stories from the countryside, and wrote some of the greatest works of poetry in Chinese literature. In 278 BCE the Chu capital Ying was captured by the powerful state of Qin, which would eventually unify China for the first time a few decades later. When Qu Yuan learned the news, he commited suicide by jumping in a river. According to the legend, he was so beloved that people raced on boats to save him or at least retrieve his body, but it was too late. Not able to find the poet’s body, the people threw rice into the river so that the fish would eat that instead of Qu Yuan’s body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi, a traditional dish made of rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Eating zongzi is now one of the most popular traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival, and the food most commonly associated with this holiday.
There are also other popular legends traditionally linked with the Dragon Boat Festival, such as the story of the death of general Wu Zixu, whose body was thrown into a river after being forced to commit suicide. Another traditional story says that during a celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival in the year 143, a shaman named Cao Xu fell into a river. His 13-year-old daughter Cao E searched for her father for five days, before both were found dead from drowning. Cao E has since been celebrated as an example of filial piety and she is remembered during the Dragon Boat Festival especially in the Zhejiang Province, where she lived.
A painting from the 16th century depicting a procession during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Despite these legends, the origins of the holiday are likely older. In ancient times, diseases were prevalent during the early summer and many people would fall ill in this period, corresponding with the fifth month of the lunisolar calendar. This was also the time when many venomous insects and snakes started appearing. Thus, this month was considered unlucky and even poisonous, especially the fifth day. The Dragon Boat Festival might have originated as a celebration of health and a way to get rid of bad luck, diseases, and venomous animals, and also a festival of agriculture and fertility. Over time, different traditions such as the commemoration of the death of Qu Yuan and dragon worship might have been linked together and celebrated as a single holiday.
Today the Dragon Boat Festival is associated with various customs, most notably dragon boat racing. Dragon boats are traditional vessels adorned with carved dragon heads and tails, and they originated over 2,500 years ago in Southern China. Dragon boats can have different sizes, which may vary by region or purpose, and can be usually between 10 and 35 meters long. Now dragon boat racing is an organized sport with competitions all over the world and a race consists of a sprint of several hundred meters. One of the most popular dragon boat races is held in Hong Kong during the Dragon Boat Festival, known there as Tuen Ng Festival in Cantonese.
Dragon boat racing in Hong Kong (Atmhk, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
Different foods are also associated with the Dragon Boat Festival. The most notable one is the rice dumpling called zongzi which, as explained earlier, is linked with the story of the death of Qu Yuan. There are also other traditional foods usually eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, which differ by region. In Central China it is a custom to eat eggs steamed with tea, eggs with garlic, and eels, while along the eastern coast people usually eat wrapped pancakes or a kind of fried cake made of wheat and rice flour called jiandui. Other traditional Dragon Boat Festival foods are the glutinous rice cakes made by the Korean minority in the Jilin Province, and the mianshanzi from the Gansu Province, which is made of wheat flour shaped like a fan.
A plate of zongzi (Allentchang, Creative Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
There is also an alcoholic beverage traditionally consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival, called realgar wine. This drink is a kind of yellow wine, or huangjiu, dosed with an arsenic sulfide mineral called realgar. In ancient times, realgar was regarded as an universal antidote and used as pesticide and repellent against venomous snakes and insects. Although realgar has low toxicity, it may contain traces of arsenic compounds, which could be dangerous for humans.
Another tradition linked with preventing disease or evil during the Dragon Boat Festival is hanging icons of Zhong Kui, a deity regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and demons. For the same reason, people also hang plants such as mugwort and calamus and wear perfume pouches containing vanilla and flower petals. People also may put up pictures of five venomous creatures or wrap them around the wrists of their children in order to ward off the dangerous animals.
The Dragon Boat Festival is now celebrated in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and many Asian countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Other holidays celebrated in Asia have originated from the Dragon Boat Festival. In Japan, the Tango no Sekku festival is an event to ward off evil spirits now celebrated on May 5, but originally held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunisolar calendar. Similarly, the Dano festival in Korea and the Tết Đoan Ngọ festival in Vietnam share the same origin and both still follow the lunisolar calendar.
Dragon boats in Taiwan (Aronexis, Creative Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
