The Dragon Boat Festival takes place on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and was originally associated with the Summer Solstice. The farmers were welcoming the Monsoon rains that would assure a plentiful harvest. On that day everyone in China eat rice wrapped in leaves.
The Festival honors Qu Yuan, China's oldest known poet. Qu Yuan gave advice on how to keep the peace to his king during the warring states period (same period that Sun Tzu wrote the Art of War) over 2000 years ago. Unfortunately, he was ignored by his King and became very sad as other officials slandered him. He was removed from office and became very sad as he was banished. He drowned himself on the fifth day of the fifth month on hearing that his country had been conquered after he wrote the famous poem, "Li Sao (On encountering Sorrow)". People raced their boats to save him and beat their drums. To stop the fish and river dragon from eating him, they beat the water with their paddles. But this did not work.
Traditional Dragon Festival Foods
People gave offering of rice to feed his spirit and make sure that the fish would never feed on his body. To make sure that other animals don't eat the rice, they wrap it in a reed and to scare the animals, tied it with bright imperial colors (red, blue, white, yellow, and black). In another story there is a hungry dragon that is eating all the rice, so the bright colors scare the dragon away. The wrapped stick rice is called joong and you can buy it from Chinese bakeries or order it at a Dim Sum restaurant.
Other Dragon Festival Customs
Children on that day wear bracelets of five different colors to protect against Evil, they are called the Five Poison or Wu Du charms.
Dragon Boats are painted traditionally green, red, yellow, white, and black. Dragons are powerful of full of good luck, so the Dragon boat races spread good luck. Dragon Boat festivals are held from February through October. There are over forty Dragon Boat Festivals in the US and Canada, with the largest in Vancouver and Toronto. Each team races on a fifty foot long teak or fiberglass dragon boat that has usually 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a steer person. The drummer is the heart of the Dragon. The course is 500 to 1300 Meters long.
