Duanwu Festival – the Dragon Boat Festival2 photos

The Duanwu Festival is one of China’s three most important traditional holidays. This day is also known as the Double Fifth Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, or the Poet’s Day. It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the lunar calendar.

The most widely accepted theory holds that this festival originated in memory of the ancient Chinese patriot poet Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan lived during the Warring States period (5th–8th centuries BCE) in the state of Chu. He repeatedly advised the ruler of Chu to implement reforms aimed at stopping political degeneration, decline, and corruption. However, the king, believing the slanderous accusations made by corrupt officials, deliberately exiled the poet from the capital.

In 278 BCE, the armies of the state of Qin conquered Chu’s capital. Upon learning of this national tragedy, Qu Yuan could not bear it and committed suicide by jumping into a river on the fifth day of the fifth month. According to legend, when people heard of his death, they filled grief and horror, rushed to the rivers, and searched desperately for his body, but were never able to find it.

Since then, every year on the date of Qu Yuan’s death, people have held dragon boat races on the rivers in his memory. This is why this festival is sometimes also called the Dragon Boat Festival.

At the same time, people used to throw bamboo baskets filled with cooked rice into the river for Qu Yuan. However, one legend says that Qu Yuan himself appeared on the shore and told them: “The dragon eats all the rice you give me. Wrap the rice in reed leaves and tie it with colored threads, because the dragon fears these two things most.”

This is how the traditional festival food, zongzi, came into being—sticky rice wrapped in reed leaves.

Today, the Duanwu Festival is a national holiday, and the celebrations last for three days, starting from the day of the festival itself.