Duanwu Festival
Special Food During Duanwu Festival – Chinese Folklore
Since ancient times, Chinese people threw into the water dumplings made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves on the day so that the fish would eat the rice rather that Qu Yuan’s body. This later on turned into the custom of eating Zongzil
The shape of Zongzi ranges from relatively tetrahedral to cylindrical. Wrapping a Zongzi neatly is a skill which is passed down through families, as are the recipes.
With traditional Chinese Zongzi are wrapeed in bamboo leaves, the bamboo of lotus, maize, etc. are something used as substitutes. Each kind of leaf imparts its own unique smell and flavor to the rice.
Things Chinese Do in Duanwu Festival – Chinese Folklore
The following is a list of things or traditions Chinese may do on the Dragon Boat Festival.
1.Dragon Boat Racing
Dragon boat racing is an indispensable part of the festival, held all over the country. As the gun is fired, people will see racers in dragon-shaped boats pulling the oars harmoniously and hurriedly, accompanied by rapid drums, speeding toward their destination.
In the following thousands of years, the game spread to Japan, Vietnam, etc. Now dragon boat racing has developed into an aquatic sports item which features both Chinese tradition and modern sporting spirit.
2.pictures of Zhong Kui and Calalmus & Moxa
Zhong Kui is the exorcist par excellence. His picture, a fierce-looking male brandishing a magic sword, used to be hung up in Chinese housed in order to scare away evil spirits and demons, especially in the time of the Dragon Boat Festival.
On this day, most of the families would also hang calamus and moxa (oriental plants) on the front door. This is also to ward off evil. This is especially popular in south China.
3.rfume Pouch
On the Dragon Boat Festival, it is a common practice for parents to dress their children up with a perfume pouch. They first sew little bags with colorful silk cloth, then fill the bags with perfumes or herbal medicines, and finally string them with silk threads. The perfume pouch will be hung around the neck or tied to the front of a garment as an ornament. They are said to be able to prevent evil things from harming the children.
Origin of Duanwu Festival – Chinese Folklore
One traditional view holds that the festival has been intended to memorialize the famous Chinese poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States Period. Qu was minister of the State of Chu and one of China’s earliest poets.
Known for his patriotism, Qu Yuan tried unsuccessfully to warn his king and countrymen against the expansionism of their Qin neighbors. Disgusted by the corruption of the Chu government after the collapse of his mother state, he committed suicide by drowning himself in a river named the Miluo River.
The local people, sympathizing him and knowing him to be on upright and virtuous man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so they would not eat his body. They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats, and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce-looking carved dragon head on the boat’s prow.
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