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Dragon Boat celebration
March 13, 2011, Sunday
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Starting on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, people of several ethnic groups throughout China and the world celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.
The festivities vary from region to region, but do share several features. A memorial ceremony offering sacrifices to a local hero is combined with sporting events such as dragon races, dragon boating and willow shooting; feasts of rice dumplings, eggs and ruby sulphur wine; and folk entertainment including opera, song and unicorn dances.
The hero who is celebrated varies by region: poet Qu Yuan is venerated in Hubei and Hunan Provinces, Wu Zixu (an old man said to have died while slaying a dragon) in southern China, and Yan Hongwo in Yunnan Province among the ethnic Dai community.
Participants also ward off evil during the festival by bathing in flower-scented water, wearing five-color silk, hanging plants such as moxa and calamus over their doors, and pasting paper cut-outs in their windows.
The Dragon Boat Festival strengthens families and establishes a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. It also encourages the expression of creativity, contributing to a vivid sense of cultural identity. In 2009, the Dragon Boat Festival was inscribed on UNESCO's representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The festivities vary from region to region, but do share several features. A memorial ceremony offering sacrifices to a local hero is combined with sporting events such as dragon races, dragon boating and willow shooting; feasts of rice dumplings, eggs and ruby sulphur wine; and folk entertainment including opera, song and unicorn dances.
The hero who is celebrated varies by region: poet Qu Yuan is venerated in Hubei and Hunan Provinces, Wu Zixu (an old man said to have died while slaying a dragon) in southern China, and Yan Hongwo in Yunnan Province among the ethnic Dai community.
Participants also ward off evil during the festival by bathing in flower-scented water, wearing five-color silk, hanging plants such as moxa and calamus over their doors, and pasting paper cut-outs in their windows.
The Dragon Boat Festival strengthens families and establishes a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. It also encourages the expression of creativity, contributing to a vivid sense of cultural identity. In 2009, the Dragon Boat Festival was inscribed on UNESCO's representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
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