Dragon Boat Festival Has Much More to it Than You Think

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Chongwu Festival, Zhengyang Festival and Tianzhong Festival, is a traditional Chinese folk festival which takes place on the fifth day of May in the lunar calendar, the equivalent of June 25 in 2020.  

Dragon Boat Festival originated from the worship of celestial phenomena and dragons in ancient times. The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival has roots in the ancient astrological culture, philosophy of humanity and other fields, which contain profound and rich cultural connotations. As it developed and inherited customs over decades of history, the Dragon Boat Festival is a combination of a wide variety of folk customs.

Dragon-boat racing and eating zongzi (traditional Chinese rice-pudding) are both famous Dragon Boat Festival customs created to commemorate a great ancient Chinese poet named Qu Yuan. According to history books, when Qu Yuan heard the news that Qin had defeated the State of Chu, whose emperor he served, he was very devastated and, feeling that he had no more power to save his motherland, he jumped in the Miluo River. Then the locals immediately rowed boats all the way to Dongting Lake, after they heard the news about Qu Yuan’s suicide, but couldn’t find his body.

In order to express their grief, people went boating on rivers, and then gradually developed the dragon boat race. People were afraid that the fish in the river would eat his body, so they went home to take rice balls and put them into the river to avoid fish and shrimps from damaging Qu Yuan’s body. Later, these rice balls because known as zongzi, and eating zongzi became a custom of the Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival customs that we are most familiar with are, most likely, dragon-boat racing and eating zongzi . These two are the most well-known customs of Dragon Boat Festival, but there are much more than two customs, and different regions in China have different practices.

Dragon Boat Festival used to be more clearly identified as a summer festival for getting rid of plague and preserving health. Therefore, many customs are related to these ideas and themes.

Other than dragon boat and zongzi, hanging Artemisia argyi (wormwood) on doors is also one of the most common and important activities to do during the Dragon Boat Festival. This is because wormwood is an important medicinal plant; moxa (filaments made of wormwood) can be made by wormwood to treat diseases, and wormwood can be used as insect repellent as well. Artemisia indica (called May wormwood in Chinese) contains the most oil, so people fight over May wormwood during this time of the year because of its effectiveness.

In terms of natural phenomena, around the Dragon Boat Festival every year, the warm and wet air flow in the south of China is active and meets with the cold air flow from the north of China in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan, often resulting in continuous large-scale heavy rainfall. The heavy precipitation around the Dragon Boat Festival is called the “dragon boat water” in Chinese. Rinsing with dragon boat water is a traditional custom that is popular in South China. According to the traditional saying, dragon boat water has a meaning of auspiciousness, therefore, rinsing one’s self with dragon boat water may bring the person good luck as it can be seemed as washing off the bad luck from one’s body and has the effects of exorcising evil spirits.When the heavy precipitation of Dragon Boat Festival occurs, the water level of rivers also rises rapidly, which creates good conditions for dragon boat racing.

Another popular custom is making calamus wine. People dip calamus in the calamus wine to sprinkle on corners, doors, windows, under the bed, etc., and apply the wine on children’s ears, nose, navel, which has the effect of repelling poisonous insects. These activities, from the perspective of health, are scientifically justified. Realgar mixed with water and calamus wine has the effect of sterilization, and it is also quite beneficial for adults to drink calamus wine.

Dragon Boat Festival is a Chinese traditional festival that is full of cultural characteristics and interesting folk customs. Please enjoy the dragon boat festival on June 25.