DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL KEEPS THE BEAST AT BAY
Celebration crosses ethnic lines and national boundaries as an important cultural event on the fifth day of the fifth month
Traditional Chinese festivals always have their symbolic foods — especially the four traditional big festivals. For Spring Festival, people think of dumplings. For Mid-Autumn Festival it’s mooncakes. Tomb Sweeping Day has green rice balls. And the Dragon Boat Festival — or Duanwu Festival — features zongzi, or sticky rice dumplings.
There is always a core idea behind each festival. Reunion is the theme of the Spring and Mid-Autumn Festivals, while memorializing and worshipping ancestors is the core idea of Tomb Sweeping Day.
For the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, getting rid of disease, avoiding disasters and wishing for good health are the core ideas.
Based on ancient writings, Chen Lianshan, a professor of Chinese folklore, thinks that 2,000 years ago the Duanwu Festival was closely related to people’s wishes to prevent epidemics, ward off devil spirits and wish for good health.
Xiao Fang, a sociologist at Beijing Normal University, thinks that as a traditional festival Duanwu ranks second only to Spring Festival because its month is associated with bad luck and devil spirits. A major activity to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival is a race of dragon boats, which is thought to calm those spirits.
Wen Yiduo (1899-1946), a poet and academic, wrote that on the fifth day of the fifth month, people threw rice dumplings into the water and raced the dragon boats — activities expressing awe of the dragon below and the hope that it will not make trouble in the days to come.
Besides racing dragon boats, people also hang sweet sedge and wormwood on their front doors, drink realgar wine and make pouches filled with herbs, all customs to get rid of evil spirits.
Though it’s a traditional festival, the Dragon Boat Festival holiday was not made a public holiday until 2008, together with Mid-Autumn Festival and Tomb Sweeping Day.
History and origin
The history of the Duanwu Festival dates to the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). The most widely known story of Duanwu in contemporary China is that it was started to remember Qu Yuan, a patriotic official from the state of Chu (today’s Hubei province) who committed suicide on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. People rowed a boat to find him but failed, so they threw sticky rice dumplings into the river so the dragon underwater would not eat his body.
In eastern China, however, Duanwu Festival memorializes another patriotic official, Wu Zixu from the state of Wu (today’s Jiangsu province), whom the king mistakenly ordered killed and thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
In both regions, dragon boat racing is a popular activity during Duanwu Festival.
According to Wen Yiduo, the practice of racing dragon boats first appeared in the states of Wu and Yue in what is now eastern China. Wen reached this conclusion because the dragon was the totem for tributes in these states and dragon boat racing activities were held to make sacrifices to dragons.
Events and commemorations
In Qu Yuan’s hometown, Zigui county in Hubei province, a series of events are held to honor Qu Yuan annually. For people in Zigui, Duanwu is even more bustling than the Spring Festival. People celebrate in three different phases, on fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar and on the 15th day and 25th day of the same month.
On what’s known as Double Fives Day, people in Zigui will gather at rivers and temples to worship Qu Yuan. Rituals of sacrifice, as well as the music and clothing replicate the ancient routines of the state of Chu.
Before the race of dragon boats on that day, rowers hang a red cloth, and a drummer on the boat sings, “My dear brother please come back.”
Zheng Da, a 32-year-old restaurateur from Zigui has been racing dragon boats for more than a decade.
“I’m in the third generation of rowers in my family, and I watched my grandfather and father race since I was very young,” Zheng said. “It is not difficult to learn, and not very dangerous if one can swim. I’m not only a rower, but also a drummer and a coach.”
Zheng is planning to pass the skill to his 4-year-old son.
For Zheng, racing the dragon boat is more than a childhood tradition. When working together with other 19 people on a boat, teamwork is the quintessential element.
“To compete together with teammates to achieve something is very fulfilling,” Zheng said.
Every year, 10 days before Duanwu
Festival, Zheng will start practicing for the competition.
“The tradition has not changed since my childhood. People join a poetry society and read poems and race the dragon boat. Also kids take baths in water with wormwood leaves.”
In 2011, Zigui was named the hometown of the dragon boat by the General Administration of Sports of China.
In Zigui, people also make and eat rice dumplings, drink wine with realgar powder, hang sweet sedge and wormwood on the front door and fill pouches with herbs, using five-colors of string.
Another major event in Zigui is reciting poems to remember Qu Yuan. The history of the poet society in Zigui dates to the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644). Currently, there are 15 poet societies and around 200 poets in Zigui.
Ethnic groups celebrate
Not only Han Chinese but also other ethnic groups in China celebrate Duanwu Festival both in similar and unique ways.
Eating rice dumplings is one shared custom. In northern China, people eat sweet rice dumplings made in triangles and filled with red bean paste and red dates. In southern China, the shapes and flavors are more diverse. Rice dumplings in the shape of a pillow filled with roast pork, eggs and shrimp are also widely accepted.
A special gray rice dumpling can be found in Dehong, Yunnan province.
Wash the sticky rice and mix them with soy sauce, wrap them with reed leaves, and fill the dumplings with roast pork and lemongrass powder. The gray rice dumplings smell especially good with the lemongrass.
Racing dragon boats is a shared custom among many ethnic minority groups. For the Miao in Guizhou province, the idea behind dragon boat racing during Duanwu Festival is making a sacrifice to the dragon and expressing a wish for a peaceful year.
To make the festival more attractive, in 2016 a public organization in Shibing county, Guizhou, sponsored the construction of a colossal wooden dragon boat — 77.8 meters long, 3.8 meters wide and 0.6 meters deep. It set a Guinness World Record the same year. The boat, made by craftsmen from Shibing in four months — was decorated with colorful paintings and exquisite engravings. It can hold 380 people and needs 180 rowers to work in unison.
Since 2016, dragon boat racing during Duanwu Festival has become a tourist attraction in Shibing county.
There are also traditions unique to other ethnicities. For
Dai people in Yunnan, for example, Duanwu Festival is an annual opportunity to express admiration to others.
A legend tells the story of a couple who were separated when they arrived at Mengya (today’s Yuanyang county in Yunnan province). The man looks for his girlfriend anxiously and asks an old man by the Honghe River who tells him he didn’t see a young woman but only a white goose.
The man follows the clue and finds that the white goose is his beloved woman. They decide to stay by the riverside and live a happy life.
Annually, on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Dai people gather along the Honghe River in Mengya, dressed in their traditional clothing and accessories. They sing and dance together to remember the couple.
To compete together with teammates to achieve something is very fulfilling
Zheng Da, a restaurant owner from Zigui, Hubei province
Duanwu Festival overseas
Duanwu Festival is also found in other Asian countries. In Japan, for instance, people celebrate the lunar New Year, as well as the Duanwu and Mid-Autumn festivals. Xiao Fang noted a shared custom in China and Japan, as people in both countries hang wormwood in their homes to expel evil spirits.
In South Korea, a sport popular during Duanwu Festival is not dragon boat racing but wrestling.
In Vietnam, the customs share more similarities with China’s. People eat rice dumplings and drink realgar wine. Parents tie five-color ed string onto their children’s wrists to protect them from devils.
“In other Asian countries, people celebrate Duanwu Festival not to memorialize Qu Yuan but for a shared idea behind the day, which is to pray for good health and a happy life,” Xiao said.
In 2009, Duanwu Festival was listed by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.
Xiao Fang, the sociologist, said that the Duanwu Festival is about patriotism and humanistic care — a treasure of China’s national culture that has cross-border significance.