Chinese Culture Club - DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

端午节

•In China, this festival is popularly known as Tuen Ng or Duanwu Festival•This year, the holiday will be celebrated on Sat, Jun 20, 2015•The Dragon Boat Festival is among the three major Chinese holidays (Chinese New Year & Mid-Autumn Festival)

Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Racing

• Competing teams drive their colorful dragon boats forward to the rhythm of beating drums.

• Races can have any number of boats competing, with the winner being the first team to grab a flag at the end of the course

• The dragon boats are brightly painted and decorated canoes ranging from 40 – 100 feet long.

Dragon Boat Race

History•Commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, who committed suicide by drowning himself in the MiLuo River.

•Today, these exciting races were inspired by the villager's valiant attempts to rescue Qu Yuan from the MiLuo river

Activities• Three of the most widespread

activities for Duanwu Festival are :–eating (and preparing) zongzi, –drinking realgar wine, and– racing dragon boats.

Zongzi•Traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival

•This tasty dish consists of rice dumplings filled with meat, peanut, egg, beans, dates, sweet potatoes, walnuts, mushrooms, or a combination of both.

•They are generally steamed and wrapped in bamboo/corn leaves.

Zongzi

Origin of zongzi.•When minister Qu Yuan ’s body could not be found, people dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body.

Other activities…• Hanging up icons of Zhong Kui (a

mythic guardian figure)

• Hanging mugwort and calamus

• Taking long walks

• Wearing perfumed medicine bags

Hong Kong dragon boat festival

• Flushing Meadows–Corona Park• 111th St to Van Wyck Expy (bet. Flushing Bay and Grand Central Pkwy.)

Queens, NY 11368• “A colorful multicultural tradition, this festival paddles back to Flushing Meadows Corona

Park for a weekend-long celebration. The fest gets its name from the roughly 180 dragon-boat teams from around the world that come to race on the Queens park's lake. Back on shore, expect plenty of traditional food and live entertainment, martial arts demonstrations from the monks of the Shaolin Temple, lion dance performances, Chinese crafts and children's activities. Races take place throughout the day. This year marks the 25th anniversary. ”

Saturday, June 20, 2015