The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, is coming! It is one of my favorite Chinese festivals just because the Zongzi is so delicious! Of course, it is a traditional and important celebration in China. In 2024, Dragon Boat Festival falls on June 10 and people will have 1 day of public holiday in China.
Just to clarify, I see lots of articles stating that China will have 3 days of public holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival, but it’s not. To create a longer holiday period, China normally will swap the weekends with the weekdays next to the actual holiday, which is why we’ll have 3 consecutive days for Dragon Festival.
Dragon Boat Festival also has various other names, such as Rice Dumpling Festival, Dumpling Festival, Duanwu Festival, and Zongzi Festival, so don’t be confused.
| Chinese name | 端午节 Duānwǔ Jié /dwann-woo jyeah |
| Also called | Rice Dumpling festival, Dumpling festival, Duanwu Festival, zongzi festival |
| Date | May 5th of the Chinese lunar calendar |
| History | Over 2,000 years |
| Public Holiday | 1 day |
Origin and story of Dragon Boat Festival
According to my research, I know that the Dragon Boat Festival actually originated from the worship of celestial phenomena and evolved from the dragon totem sacrifice in ancient times. The Dragon Boat Festival ritual and customs are related to primitive beliefs, sacrificial culture, the Ganzhi calendar and the celestial phenomena of Canglong Qisu in nanzhong.
Ancient Chinese astrological culture has a long history and is broad and profound. The ancients began to explore the mysteries of the universe very early, and thus deduced a complete and profound astrological culture.
According to the preface of the spring and autumn Life Calendar: “heaven and earth are opened up, and all things are muddy and ignorant; Yin and yang are based on, and the celestial body begins in the field of the north pole. The sun and moon rotate in five latitudes; the emperor goes out… Determine the image of the sky, follow the instrument of the earth, and act as a trunk and branch to determine the degree of the sun and moon.” In ancient times, people determined the image of the sky and the instrument of the earth.
I know lots of people have heard of the widely spread view of “Commemoration of historical figures”. It is actually based on the mythological novel “xuqi harmonic record” by Wu Jun, a Liang man in the Southern Dynasty, and Zong purlin’s “Jingchu age record”, which holds that the Dragon Boat Festival originated in commemorating Qu Yuan. Others think it is to commemorate Wu Zixu, Cao E and Jie Zitui.
In the historical development and evolution, most of the traditional festivals are attached to some legends as the “origin”, but after practical investigation, these stories and legends are far later than the birth of the festival and are constructed by later generations.
Due to the lack of historical research before modern times, there are many far-fetched theories about the origin. Also, I think it’s because some historical figures happen to be related to that day, there is a “theory of commemoration”, among which the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan has the most extensive influence.
Modern historians have constantly pointed out the mistake of commemorating Qu Yuan, because the Dragon Boat Festival existed as early as before the age of Qu Yuan. A comprehensive survey of the documents of Han and Wei dynasties shows that the Han Dynasty has experienced more than 400 years of history, full of romance and passion, and maintained the Chu culture of the native place of Southern Chu. Qu Yuan, the famous successor of Chu culture, did not leave a word or phrase record of the Dragon Boat Festival activities in the pre-Han and Wei dynasties.
Therefore, many scholars believe that the Dragon Boat Festival has nothing to do with Qu Yuan. In folklore, in addition to the Dragon Boat Festival originating from Qu Yuan’s theory, there are also statements in memory of Wu Zixu, Cao E, Jie Zitui, Chen Lin, an honest official, Gou Jian, king of Yue, and so on.
How do the Chinese celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival?
Eating zongzi (粽子)
Zongzi is the traditional Dragon Boat Festival food and is the main reason I expect Dragon Ball Festival every year! Zongzi will be filled with sticky rice, and instead of corn husks, bamboo leaves/reed leaves are used. I think it’s very delicious!
Types of zongzi
- Beijing zongzi: Beijing zongzi is a large, oblique quadrangle or triangle, mostly filled with red dates and bean paste, and a few are also filled with preserved fruits.
- Guangdong zongzi: Guangdong zongzi is the representative variety of Southern zongzi. It is small and unique in shape. Salted meat zongzi is the most common zongzi in Guangdong. It is filled with salted egg yolk, mushrooms, fat pork, and so on.
- Hebei Baiyangdian zongzi: the zongzi leaves of Baiyangdian are different from those used in the south. Baiyangdian zongzi is made of reed on the lake. Baiyangdian’s reed leaves are wide, soft, and strong, which is very suitable for making zongzi.
- Suzhou zongzi: Suzhou zongzi is a long and thin quadrangular shape, including fresh meat, jujube paste, bean paste, lard sand, and other varieties. It has the characteristics of exquisite ingredients and fine production.
- Sichuan spicy zongzi: Sichuan people are fond of spicy, so zongzi can also be sweet and spicy. The classic collocation of spicy zongzi is Bacon, sausage, and smoked fish. Cooked spicy dumplings are spicy and palatable, with unique characteristics.
- Hainan zongzi: Hainan zongzi is wrapped with banana leaves. There are salted egg yolk, barbecued pork, bacon and so on in the glutinous rice. Zongzi has both strong and light flavors, meat, and vegetables, which makes the eater’s appetite open.
- Shaanxi zongzi: Honey cool zongzi is popular in Shaanxi. Honey cool zongzi is different from other zongzi. It is made of glutinous rice. It looks like water chestnut and is as white as jade. It is cool and relieves the summer heat.
Watching the dragon boat race
It’s the signature activity of the Dragon Boat Festival, you just can’t have the Dragon Boat Festival without the dragon boat race!
The dragon boat race is a traditional folk activity. It integrates sacrifice, blessing, competition, fighting spirit, and fighting for honor. It has its own set of procedures and competition methods. It is usually held during the Dragon Boat Festival.
The custom of dragon boats can not only unite the people and maintain unity, but also express the love, yearning, and pursuit of Chinese working people for a better life.
The crew of a standard dragon boat typically consists of 22 team members: 20 paddlers in pairs facing toward the bow of the boat, 1 drummer or caller at the bow facing toward the paddlers, and 1 steerer standing at the rear of the boat.
Dragon boats, however, do vary in length, and the crew size changes accordingly, from small dragon boats with only 10 paddlers up to traditional boats which have upwards of 50 paddlers, plus drummer(s) and steerer.
| Positions | Responsible for |
| Drummer | The pulsation of the drum beats produced by the drummer may be considered the “heartbeat” of the dragon boat. The drummer leads the paddlers throughout a race using the rhythmic drumbeat to indicate the frequency and synchronization of all the paddlers’ strokes |
| Paddlers | Pairs of paddlers sit facing forward in the boat and use a specific type of paddle which, unlike equipment used in rowing, is not rigged to the boat in any way. |
| Steerer | The direction of a dragon boat’s movement is controlled by the steerer standing at the back of the boat. Many terms exist for the person steering the boat, such as steerer, steersperson, steerman, sweep, and helm. |
Dragon Boat Festival fun facts
There are some fun facts about the Dragon Boat Festival I want to share with you. Some of them are even surprised me when I heard them for the first time but really interesting!
1. The Dragon Boat Festival was not an auspicious festival but related to weather terms
After the summer solstice, with the arrival of high temperature, mosquitoes and flies began to breed and epidemics began to spread while the sun and rain were sufficient and beneficial to the growth of crops.
In the past, the level of science and technology was underdeveloped. After recognizing this phenomenon, people consciously chose a time node before the summer solstice and held some activities to remind everyone to pay attention to disease prevention. In the past, people thought that the number “Five” was unlucky, so may was a “bad month” and “five days” was a “bad day”.
Therefore, the fifth day of May was finally selected as the time node to remind everyone to pursue advantages and avoid disadvantages, and gradually formed a lot of folk activities. Xiao Fang, a folklorist, also said that the Dragon Boat Festival was not an auspicious day in traditional society.
2. The dragon boat race is not because of Qu Yuan
Many people may think that the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan, and the dragon boat race is also to commemorate Qu Yuan. People boated on the river to drive away from the fish, shrimp, and crabs so that they would not eat Qu Yuan’s body in the river.
In fact, this is putting the cart before the horse… Qu Yuan “chose” to throw into the river during the Dragon Boat Festival, not because Qu Yuan threw into the river on that day.
Qu Yuan once wrote “Nine Songs · Xiangjun” and “flying dragon leads to the northern expedition, and I lead the way to the Dongting”. It is a poem about riding a dragon boat on the river and throwing some artifacts (such as a jade pendant) into the river to commemorate someone.
According to the textual research of many experts, the activities of dragon boat racing may be more than 1000 years earlier than Qu Yuan, and the real origin is some kind of primitive spirit.
3. What was the first zongzi wrapped with?
According to records, as early as the spring and Autumn period, rice was wrapped with wild rice leaves (Zizania latifolia leaves) into ox horn shape, which was called “corns”; Packed with rice in a bamboo tube, sealed and roasted, called “tube Zong”.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in wild rice leaves into a quadrangular shape and cooked to become Guangdong alkaline water zongzi.
4. Carrying sachets was first used to absorb sweat
Chen Shiliang’s “Guangji of age” quoted “miscellaneous notes of age” to mention a kind of “the end five is made of red and white color, such as a bag, with color lines running through it, and the twitch is like a flower.”
And another kind of “clam powder bell”: “take clam powder into silk on the fifth day, and put it on cotton, if you count beads so that children can take it to absorb sweat”.
The contents of these carry-on bags have changed several times, from sweat-sucking clam powder, evil dispelling talisman, a copper coin, and insect repellent realgar powder to perfume bags. The production is becoming more and more exquisite and has become a unique folk art of the Dragon Boat Festival.
5. Southern people do the Dragon Boat race, what about the northern people?
As we all know, most of the customs of dragon boat races are in the south. So what will the northern people do during the Dragon Boat Festival?
Most of them are shooting willows and playing polo. Many Northerners have nomadic ancestry, so the movement is also a horse movement. Therefore, in the North represented by Beijing, many of them carried out Dragon Boat Festival activities of shooting willows and polo at that time.
6. Dragon boat racing is not only during the day but also at night.
For hundreds of years, Sanxi village, Jiangtian Town, Changle City, the hometown of overseas Chinese in Fujian, has maintained a unique custom of dragon boat races at night.
For the origin of the custom of night dragon boat racing, is it just because the villagers feel unhappy about the dragon boat race during the day, so they still race at night? In this regard, the villagers explained that in ancient times, villagers had to work hard during the day and had leisure at night.
Therefore, those who went out to work during the day and couldn’t catch up with the dragon boat race formed an “extra race” at night
7. Should you say “Happy Dragon Boat Festival”?
According to the ancients, may is the poison month and the fifth day is the poison day, so on this day, they will use various customs to drive away poison and evil spirits.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, newly married or married women wanted to go back to their mother’s home for the festival, which was called “hide from the fifth”. This custom seems to have taken shape in the Song Dynasty. According to this statement, it seems inappropriate to say “Happy Dragon Boat Festival” to each other on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, “healthy Dragon Boat Festival” is probably more appropriate.
8. There are three Dragon Boat Festivals in Zigui, Hubei Province
Zigui is the hometown of Qu Yuan. The Dragon Boat Festival custom here has a long history and unique form. Many traditional customs are related to sacrificing Qu Yuan.
In Zigui, the Dragon Boat Festival is bigger than the new year and grander than the Spring Festival. Zigui has three “Dragon Boat Festivals” every year: the first Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the Great Dragon Boat Festival is on the 15th day of May, and the last Dragon Boat Festival is on the 25th day of May.
Dragon Boat Festival Observances
| Year | Weekday | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Tue | May 30 |
| 2018 | Mon | Jun 18 |
| 2019 | Fri | Jun 7 |
| 2020 | Thu | Jun 25 |
| 2021 | Mon | Jun 14 |
| 2022 | Fri | Jun 3 |
| 2023 | Thu | Jun 22 |
| 2024 | Mon | Jun 10 |
| 2025 | Sat | May 31 |
| 2026 | Fri | Jun 19 |
| 2027 | Wed | Jun 9 |
FAQ: About the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival
Here are some, in my opinion, the most traditional customs:
– dragon boat racing
– eating zongzi,
– hanging Chinese mugwort and calumus,
– drinking realgar wine
– wearing perfume pouches
It’s used for religious purposes as a way to appease the rain gods. Each boat has an ornately carved dragon’s head at the bow and a tail at the stern. The boat is painted with scales. The paddles symbolically represent the dragon’s claws, the drum represents the heart.
Because he realized that his motherland had been damaged and was heartbroken to see his country being intruded on. Qu Yuan felt so upset and sorrowful about his country and his people that on the lunar May fifth he threw himself into the Miluo River and ended his life.
