The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival that falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The character “Duan” means “beginning,” and since the fifth lunar month is referred to as the “Wu” month, the festival derived its name. It is also known as the “Duanyang Festival.” Alongside the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is considered one of China’s three major traditional festivals.
Its origins are ancient, primarily associated with praying for agricultural harvests and preventing summer diseases, making the theme of warding off evil and dispelling disasters a core part of the festival. Later, the commemoration of Qu Yuan, a great patriotic poet of the Warring States period, became intertwined with the festival’s customs. Traditionally, folk practices on this day include hanging mugwort and calamus on doors, drinking realgar wine, holding dragon boat races, wearing longevity threads, and eating zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings).
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