What is the Dragon Boat Festival and why is it celebrated?

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the traditional Chinese folk festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, which is one of the ancient traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. The Dragon Boat Festival is also called Duanwu and Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many other names, such as: Mid-day Festival, Double Fifth Festival, May Festival, Bathing Orchid Festival, Daughter's Festival, Tianzhong Festival, Dila Festival, Poets Festival, Dragon Day, etc. Although the names are different, in general, the customs of celebrating festivals in various places are more similar than different.

Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional custom of the Chinese for more than 2,000 years. Due to the vast territory, numerous ethnic groups, and many stories and legends, not only many different festival names have been produced, but also different customs have been observed in various places. The main contents include: daughters return to their parents' home, hang up the image of Zhong Kui, welcome the ghost ship, avoid noon, post noon leaf charms, hang calamus and mugwort, travel to treat diseases, wear sachets, prepare sacrificial offerings, race dragon boats, compete in martial arts, hit balls, swing, apply realgar to children, drink realgar wine and calamus wine, eat five-poison cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings and seasonal fresh fruits, etc. Except for the superstitious activities that have gradually disappeared, the rest are still popular in various parts of China and neighboring countries. Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, have been newly developed, breaking through the boundaries of time and region and becoming international sports events.

There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: commemorating Qu Yuan; commemorating Wu Zixu; commemorating Cao E; originating from the summer solstice festival of the Three Dynasties; driving away evil months and evil days; Wu Yue ethnic totem sacrifice, etc. The above theories are based on their own sources. According to more than 100 ancient records listed in "Dragon Boat Festival Research" and "Historical Education of Dragon Boat Festival" by scholar Wen Yiduo and archaeological research by experts, the origin of Dragon Boat Festival is the festival of totem sacrifice held by the Wuyue ethnic group in ancient southern China, which is earlier than Qu Yuan. However, for thousands of years, Qu Yuan's patriotism and touching poems have been widely rooted in the hearts of the people, so people "cherish and mourn for him, discuss his poems, and pass them on from generation to generation". Therefore, the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan has the widest and deepest influence and occupies the mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, the Chinese people associate the Dragon Boat Festival dragon boat race and eating zongzi with commemorating Qu Yuan.

To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people.