Dragon Boat Festival

Duan Wu JieDragon Boat Festival端午節
Customs, Taboos, and Food
Tracie, Byron P, Aaron, Theo, and Anna

Customs!
The Dragon Boat Race
Most Important Aspect of the Festival.
Competing teams race boats to a drumbeat,
racing to collect flags at the end of different courses.
Before a Dragon Boat can be raced,
it must be brought to life by painting the eyes in a sacred ceremony.

Customs Continued!
Dragon Boat Races!
Note the colorful boats, and
Eyes painted on the Dragon’s head

More Customs!
Plants - Hanging artemisia and calamus plants in the house is a Duan Wu tradition. Because the two herbs give off strong scents, their aroma can repel pests like mosquitoes and centipedes, etc.
Spice Bag- During Double Fifth time, adults and children in China carry with them fragrant silk pouches filled with spices. They perform the dual function of scaring evil spirits and bringing happiness and prosperity to its wearer. 

Old Customs
The following are no longer practiced;
Except possibly in rural villages.
Pasting pictures of Zhongkui, a legend, on their doors to
ward off what they believed to be upcoming disease.
Children wore necklaces made of colorful thread to ward off disease, as they were considered to be most vulnerable.

Customs Continued!
Example of a picture of ZhongKui to be hung on doorposts.

Food!
ZongZi- a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves.
Most people still maintain the tradition of eating ZongZion the day of the DuanWu Festival, and throwing them into the water. But the special delicacy has become so popular that you can now buy it all the year round.

Food Continued!
ZongZiis often made of rice mixed with dates in Northern China, because dates are abundant in the area.
Eastern China's Jia Xing County is famous for its pork-stuffed ZongZi.
In the southern Province of Guangdong, people stuff ZongZiwith pork, ham, chestnuts and other ingredients, making them very rich in flavor.
In Sichuan Province, ZongZiis usually served with a sugar dressing.

Food Continued!
Tradition behind ZongZi
It is believed that immediately after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the people threw dumplings made of glutinous rice into the the water, so that the fish would eat the dumplings instead of the body of their beloved poet.

Food Continued!
Realgar Wine
The drinking of Chinese liquor seasoned withRealgar, a rare soft orange mineral consisting of arsenic sulfide, is a very popular practice during the Dragon Boat Festival. The ancient tradition of drinking Xiong Huang Wine has turned into this modern custom. This is for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year.

Taboos!
The Dragon Boat festival"端午節" originated on a bad day. The fifth month "五月" of the Chinese "中文" lunar calendar is considered an evil  month and the 5th of the month is marked as “poison”or"毒". Many"很多" contagious disease and plagues started"開始" on that day. Also many famous people "有名的人"died on that day.

Taboos Continued!
People hold superstitions about the day,
And therefore practice many of the customs earlier
Described, such as:
Wearing spice bags to ward off evil spirits.
Posting picture of ZhongKui to ward off disease.
Giving children colorful thread necklaces to wear
to ward off disease from them.

THE END!

Bibliography!
http://www.theholidayspot.com/dragon_boat_festival/traditions.htm
http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/Dragonboat_rle.htm
http://www.hiichina.com/?action-viewnews-itemid-45
http://taoism.about.com/od/holidays/a/Dragon_Boat_Festival.htm