The Dragon Boat Festival is a lunar holiday, occurring every year on the
fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It is a Chinese holiday with a
very long history.
The highlight of the Festival is the "dragon
boat race". Competing teams row their dragon boats in tune with
drumbeats, racing forward to the finishing line. Each boat has a
drummer who also acts as the cheerleader of his team.
The custom of boat races came from an attempt
to rescue the patriotic Chinese poet Chu Yuan, who committed suicide by
drowning himself on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C.
On that eventful day, people went in their boats along the river where
the poet was drowned, making a lot of noises to frighten away the fish.
They also threw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water,
hoping that the fish would eat the rice instead of the poet. This
practice later on evolved into a traditional Chinese custom to eat
"zhongzhi" (rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) and rice dumplings on this
Festival.
Check your comprehension:
1. The Dragon Boat Festival came from China.
True
False
2. The highlight of the Festival is eating "zhongzhi".
True
False
3. Each dragon boat team has a drummer.
True
False
4. Chu Yuan, the patriotic poet, started the dragon boat race.
True
False
5. On the day when the poet died, people went to the river and threw
rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the water.
True
False
6. People threw rice into the water so that fish would not eat the
poet.
The Dragon Boat Festival is a lunar holiday, occurring every year on the
fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It is a Chinese holiday with a
very long history.