Row, row, row your Dragon Boat

• Source: The Global Times
• [20:15 May 26 2009]
• Comments

By Wen Yufang

Racers compete in a dragon boat competition near Fuzhou, Fujian Province in 2008. Photo: AFP.

Parks, lakes and rivers around the country will be alive with the sounds of drummers pounding out furious beats and racers vigorously urging their dragon boats across the water tomorrow to celebrate the traditional Dragon Boat Festival (duanwujie).

Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of every year, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the country’s oldest festivals, dating back some 2300 years. According to legend, the festival celebrates the patriot, poet and exiled minister Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in grief when his home state of Chu was invaded.

Thousands of years later, people continue to celebrate the holiday by racing dragon boats and eating zongzi, which are a type of rice dumpling originally thrown into the river to keep fish away from Qu’s body.

Over the years, the festival has grown into a sporting and cultural event around the world, with dragon boat races taking place among Chinese communities in cities such as Boston and Victoria, Canada.

In addition to China, several other Asian countries also celebrate the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, albeit in different ways. The Japanese set aside the day as Children’s Day, a day to respect children’s personalities and celebrate their happiness, while the Vietnamese also celebrate the day by holding the Festival of Delicious Fruit.