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Dragon Boat Festival

Time: May the 5th according to the Chinese lunar calendar
Dragon Boat Festival also called the Double Fifth Festival or Duanwu Festival in Chinese has the long history of more than 2, 000 years. It was once spread for to the memory of Qu Yuan, one of the patriotic poets in ancient China. Now it is a traditional and statutory holiday originating in China and associated with a number of East Asian and Southeast Asian societies.

What do people do on Dragon Boat Festival?
The main activities hold on Dragon Boat Festival are as follows: daughters come back to their home, hanging the portrait of Zhongkui (a man who is good at catching ghosts); welcoming the ghost boat; hanging up the calamus and Chinese mugwort; dragon boat racing; competition in martial skills; swinging; drinking realgar wine or calamus wine; eating the wudu pie, salted eggs, zongzi (pyramid-shaped mass of glutinous rice wrapped in leaves) and fresh vegetables.

Dragon Boat Racing:
This is the utmost main activity of the Festival. A dragon boat is a paddle boat that is traditionally made of teak wood to various designs and sizes. Rowers sit in a line, one team member sits at the front of the boat facing all the rowers and beating a drum in order to maintain morale and ensure the neat of the frequency. A team of people works the oars in a bid to reach the destination before the other teams. While the racing starting, the whole lake appears heavy waves and full of slogan, cheerful!

Eating Zongzi:
Zongzi is pyramid-shaped glutinous rice wrapped in reed. It is the special food eaten on the festival and has been a tradition in China. Made with sticky rice, it has various fillings, such as jujube, sweetened bean paste, fresh meat, egg yolk, etc. Even today, the majority of Chinese families still make Zongzi by themselves to remain the atmosphere of the festival.

Hanging Calamus and Chinese Mugwort:
Get rid of diseases prevail and pray for good health for the whole year, on the day of Dragon Boat Festival, people clean their houses and put mugwort leaves and calamus on the top of the doors, which are said to be effective in warding off disease and purifying the air.

In a multi-ethnic country, there are many other unique customs for Dragon Boat Festival in different areas of China. All the Chinese celebrate the festival happily.