Dragon Boat Festival, often known as Tuen Ng Festival or Duan Wu Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.
Dragon Boat festival memorializes the Chinese poet Qu Yuan.
He committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he was disgusted by the corruption of the Chu government.
People sat on dragon boats, and tried to scare the fishes away by the thundering sound of drums.
Hence, toady we sail the dragon boats to celebrate this festival.
Also, people eat zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fishes) in memory of Qu's dramatic death.
The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. For thousands of years, the festival has been marked by eating zong zi (glutinous rice wrapped to form a pyramid using bamboo or reed leaves) and racing dragon boats.The festival is best known for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces where there are many rivers and lakes.
At the center of this festival are the dragon boat races. Competing teams drive their colorful dragon boats forward to the rhythm of beating drums. These exciting races were inspired by the villager's valiant attempts to rescue Chu Yuan from the Mi Lo river. This tradition has remained unbroken for centuries.
Tzung Tzu A very popular dish during the Dragon Boat festival is tzung tzu. This tasty dish consists of rice dumplings with meat, peanut, egg yolk, or other fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves. The tradition of tzung tzu is meant to remind us of the village fishermen scattering rice across the water of the Mi Low river in order to appease the river dragons so that they would not devour Chu Yuan.