The Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is a significant festival in Chinese traditional celebrations. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of lunar May. This holiday is to commemorate the death of Chyu Yuan, a well-loved poet of the fourth century B.C. Chyu Yuan drowned himself to protest his king’s despotic rule. The villagers respected him so much that they rowed their boats down the river and dropped chung-tze, rice dumplings, into the river to feed the fish, so the fish would not eat Chyu Yuan’s body. To celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, families do several things, like make chung-tze, hang the moxa herb, and watch the dragon boat race.
Before the Dragon Boat Festival, every family prepares chung-tze. This is a kind of rice dumpling filled with various things, such as bean curd, meat, mushrooms, and shrimp, and then wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed. The mother and the children all work together in preparing the chung-tze.
Then each family also has to buy moxa herb and hang it in a special location. The reason for this is that the moxa herb can get rid of the bad luck in the family atmosphere. Some people even use these herbs to wash sick babies, for they believe that this special festival can bring some “transformation” in people’s lives. Usually the father and the boy find a location to hang the moxa herb.
After preparing the chung-tze, each family goes to the river to watch the dragon boat race which takes place on this festival. The dragon boat race symbolizes the story of Chyu Yuan. It is a rowing boat team competiton with about thirty people on each team. All the spectators cheer and shout enthusiastically. After tha exciting race, both the competitors and the spectators usually eat many chung-tze
The Dragon Boar Festival symbolizes the unique meanings of Chinese history; furthermore, the process of making the rice dumplings, the hanging of the moxe herb, and the boat race are a way of drawing all members of the family together again. Perhaps one day wewill have a very different celebration, but so far I still like this holiday being celebrated in a traditional way.