Dragon Boat Festival

In China people always celebrate dragon boat. This celebrate in the 5th day of the
5th lunar month .
Dragon Boat Festival people in China mean it Duanwu Festival.

History about Duanwu Festival

Origin

The Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in ancient China. A number of theories exist about its origins as a number of folk traditions and explanatory myths are connected to its observance. Today the best known of these relates to the suicide in 278 BCE of Qu Yuan, poet and statesman of the Chu kingdom during the Warring States period.

Qu Yuan

Main article: Qu Yuan

The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty.A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, dropped bamboo leaf-wrapped rice cakes into the river to feed Qu Yuan in the afterlife. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat the rice meant to be eaten in Qu Yuan's afterlife.This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.

Wu Zixu

Main article: Wu Zixu

Despite the modern popularity of the Qu Yuan origin theory, in the former territory of the state of Wu, the festival commemorated Wu Zixu (526 BCE* – 484 BCE). Wu Zixu was a loyal advisor whose advice was ignored by the king to the detriment of the kingdom. Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide by the king Fuchai, with his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, in places such as Suzhou, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Duanwu Festival to this day.

• It seems that, here, Wu Zixu's birth year is false because Wu Zixu designed and built the city of Suzhou in 514 BCE. Thus, if he were born in 526 BCE, he must be just 12 years old at the time of the construction of Suzhou, which is totally impossible. Actually, the birth year of Wu Zixu is unknown.

Cao E

The front of the Cao E Temple, facing east, toward the river. Picture taken on 26 January 2009, in Shangyu, Zhejiang, China.

Although the Qu Yuan origin theory is the most popular, much of Northeastern Zhejiang (Shaoxing, Ningbo and Zhoushan) commemorates Cao E (曹娥) (130 CE - 143 CE) rather than Qu Yuan. Cao E's father Cao Xu (曹盱) was a shaman who presided over local ceremonies in Shangyu in Zhejiang province. In the year 143 CE, while presiding over a ceremony commemorating Wu Zixu during the Duanwu Festival, Cao Xu accidentally falls into the river. Cao E, in an act of filial piety, decided to find her father in the river, searching for three days trying to find him. After five days, she and her father were both found dead at the river, which they died from drowning. Eight years later, in 151 CE, a temple was built in Shangyu dedicated to the memory of Cao E and her sacrifice for filial piety. To this day, a tributary of the Qiantang River is named after Cao E.

Pre-existing holiday

Some modern researchers suggest that the stories of Qu Yuan or Wu Zixu were superimposed on a pre-existing holiday tradition. The promotion of these stories over the earlier lore of the holiday seems to have been encouraged by Confucian scholars seeking to legitimize and strengthen their influence at a time when Buddhism, a foreign belief system, was gaining influence in China. The Records of the Grand Historian of that era relate to this.

Many traditional rituals of the Duanwu Festival emphasize the avoidance of disease. The desire to prevent health hazards associated with the mid-summer months may have been the primary original motive behind the holiday.
Another theory, advanced by Wen Yiduo, is that the Duanwu Festival had its origins in dragon worship. Support is drawn from two key traditions of the festival: the tradition of zongzi, or throwing food into the river, and dragon boat racing. The food may have originally represented an offering to the dragon king, while dragon boat racing naturally reflects reverence of the dragon and the active yang energy associated with it. This combines with the tradition of visiting friends and family on boats.
Another suggestion is that the festival celebrates a widespread feature of east Asian agrarian societies: the harvest of winter wheat. Offerings were regularly made to deities and spirits at such times: in the ancient Yue, dragon kings; in the ancient Chu, Qu Yuan; in the ancient Wu, Wu Zixu (as a river god); in ancient Korea, mountain gods (see Dano (Korean festival)). As interactions between different regions increased, these similar festivals eventually merged into one holiday.

Duanwu Festival 2012