Dragon Boat Festival
May the 5th is the traditional Dragon boat Festival in China. This festival has lasting for more than 2,000 years. Because the area is wide and there are many nationalities in China, the tradition on Dragon boat Festival are different from place to place. The main activities held on Dragon boat Festival are as follows: daughters come back to their home, hanging the portrait of Zhongkui (a man who is good at catching ghosts), welcoming the ghost boat, hanging up the calamus and Chinese mugwort, dragon boat racing, competition in martial skills, swinging, drinking realgar wine or calamus wine, eating the wudu pie, salted eggs, zongzi (pyramid-shaped mass of glutinous rice wrapped in leaves) and fresh vegetables. Some of the activities have been to abroad and developed well. For example, dragon boat racing has been an international game.
Customs of Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Racing
Dragon boat racing is a main activity in the Dragon boat Festival. It is said that in the ancient, a famous minister named Qu Yuan suicide by jumping into the Miluo River. People felt very sorry about his death and they rowed their boats to rescue him. They tried their best to catch up with him, but when they got Dongting Lake, Qu Yuan’s body could not be found any more. This is said to be the going of Dragon boat racing.
In different places, the tales about dragon bout racing is different. Even in nowadays, dragon boating is still very popular in the areas near to rivers, lakes or seas.
Eating zongzi
Zongzi is a kind of pyramid-shaped mass of glutinous rice wrapped in leaves. It is also called as jiaoshu or tongshu. Eating zongzi on Dragon boat Festival is an old tradition in China.
Nowadays, every Chinese family makes zongzi on the Dragon boat Festival. There are many kinds of zongzi, such as the jujube zongzi, ham zongzi, bean paste zongzi, pork zongzi and so on. The most outstanding representative is the zongzi in Jiaxing of Zhejiang Province. Zongzi is not only popular in China, it has been spread to Korea, Japan and some other countries in Southeast Asia.
Hanging calamus and Chinese mugwort
Hanging calamus and Chinese mugwort is an important activity on Dragon Boat Festival. Even in today, Chinese family do this to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival.
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Mid-autumn Festival
Time: August the 15th according to the lunar calendar
The festival is in the middle of autumn, people call it as Mid-autumn Festival. On the night of Mid-autumn Festival, looking at the bright full-moon, people stay far away from home miss their families very much. Mid-autumn Festival is a festival on which families should stay together. read more about Mid-autumn Festival
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