2008年6月8日端午节Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

Chinese New Year, the Mid-Fall Moon Festival and the Dragon Boat Day are three major festivals in China. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Chinese call this day as Duan-Wu . Duan means beginning. Wu means Horse month in Chinese calendar. The Horse month usually begins on June 5th or June 6th in the Gregorian calendar. That means Dragon Boat Festival should be held in June, unless that year has Leap Month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

The Sad Story

In China, the Dragon Boat Festival memorializes the Chinese patriotic poet Chiu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC or 343-290 B.C.), who committed suicide by jumping into the river after tying himself with big rock on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.

Chiu Yuan was the number one advisor of the kingdom of Chu . But people were jealous his position and said lots of bad words on his back. The king wouldn't take his advice in the end and was killed by the enemy of neighbor kingdom. The new king continued to enjoy the luxury life and didn't like Chiu Yuan either. Later, Chiu Yuan was exiled. He wrote many patriotic poem after then.

Chiu Yuan met a fisherman, who never cared about the country and quite satisfied his life. Chiu Yuan thought that the king wouldn't run the country, people only cared about themselves, nobody cared the future of the country and to live is meaningless. So he killed himself by drowning himself in the river. Many fishermen tried to rescue him, but the body is never found. Fishermen worried about fish would eat his body. So they threw food into the river to feed the fish. Plus, they tried to scare fish away by splashing the water with their paddles and beating the drums on the long narrow boats.

Then the dragon was added into the story. Fishermen believed there was a water-dragon under the river. One man poured down a big jar of strong yellow wine (made of rice). Later, a drunken dragon-like fish floated on the river. One piece of Chiu Yuan's clothing was found in-between the whisker of the water-dragon.(From:www.rr365.com)

The Dragon Boat

The custom of Dragon Boat Race might begin from the southern China. They selected the 5rh lunar day of the 5th lunar month as the totem ceremony. The dragon was the main symbol on the totem, because Chinese thought they were son of dragon. They also made dragon-like canoe. Later, Chinese connected this custom with Duan-Wu festival. Since this was the event only in the southern China. This might be why Dragon Boat Race doesn't that popular in entire China today. But we can see yearly Dragon Boat Race events in Honk Hong and Taiwan. The picture shows a person lies on the top of dragon head of the boat to prepare to catch the flag of target to win the race.

Now, the Dragon Boat Race becomes an international event. This sport is popular in USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Honk Hong, Singapore etc. Some organization's events aren't held around the Dragon Boat Festival. Some are in July, August or September. You need to check their websites for the schedules.

The Delicious Food

One saying the fishermen threw bamboo-food into the river for Chiu Yuan. The fishermen kept the custom on on the 5th day of 5th lunar month every year. Until Late Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), one outsider came and acclaimed fisherman's behavior, but recommended to wrap the food with leaves and tie with color silky rope, which can scare fish away. So the Chiu Yuan can unwrap the leaves to eat the food.

Obviously, the Zong-zi, which Chinese eat on the the Dragon Boat Day period, is like the food for Chiu Yuan. Zong-zi is make of steamed glutinous sweet rice mixing with meat and condiment wrapped in the bamboo leaves. There are salty, sweet, hot or cold different variety of Zong-Zi today. You can find Zong-Zi in Chinese restaurants providing Dim-Sum lunch or same Chinese diners in Chinese communities in USA.

The Standup Egg

The Dragon Boat Day is usually in June, which is Horse month. Horse hour in astrology is from 11:00 AM to 13:00 PM. They said that you will be lucky for the coming year if you can make an egg standing up during Horse hour on the Dragon Boat Day.

Parents like to let their children to try to make the egg standing up on the Dragon Boat Day. Certainly, the standing up egg competition will be held at noon in many places. They said that it's will be easier to make a standing up egg at noon. Many try to cheat on the ground, eggshell or inside egg to in order to win the competition.(From:www.rr365.com)

People had looked for the scientific explanation. The egg can standup easily is because the Dragon Boat Day is close to the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. The summer solstice occurs when the Earth's axis tilts the most toward the sun, causing the sun to be farthest north at noon. Sun reaches to the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere on the day of summer solstice. Before sun travels back to the southern hemisphere, it seems as if the sun stands still. When the gravitation between sun and earth are pulled each other to the most, an egg can stand up easier.

Actually, the Dragon Boat Day is not close to the summer solstice every year. Because the lunar leap months, the Dragon Boat Day usually is close to summer solstice every three years.