the tradition of the dragon boat festival and its myth.pptx

THE TRADITION OF THE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL AND ITS MYTH

by Gregory, Yun-hin Choi 蔡潤軒of Ming-Ai (London) Institute

Most people celebrated Dragon Boat Festival to commemorate the death of

Qu Yuan (屈原)

Qu Yuan (屈原) is a prolific poet and

a senior official of the ancient state of

Chu (楚) during the Warring States period

(475-221 BC)

Qu Yuan was known to be a main contributor in shaping the Chinese

classic poetry and verses. The Song of Chu (楚辭)and Li Sao(離騷)were

two of his best-known literatures.

離騷The Sorrow of Parting

朝發軔於蒼梧兮，Taking off the brake, departing from Cangwu at

dawn,

夕餘至乎縣圃；and before night falls, arriving at the Hanging

Gardens;

欲少留此靈瑣兮，I wish to stay at this gathering place of the spirits,

日忽忽其將暮；yet the sun is about to set;

吾令羲和弭節兮，I order Xihe to slow to a trot;

望崦嵫而匆迫；gazing at Mt Yan and Mt Zi, yet not anxious

to approach them;

路漫漫其脩遠兮，the road is boundless - cultivation so

distant;

吾將上下而求索。I shall explore it from beginning to end.

Li Sao (離騷) by Qu Yuan, his best known work

It is possibly this quote from The Fisherman’s Song, Song of Chu (漁父辭, 楚辭)

that are most well-known among Chinese:

舉世皆濁我獨清The entire world is in decadence but me

眾人皆醉我獨醒All inebriated but me

是見放That’s why I am in exile.

The route of Qu Yuan’s exile

Since Qu Yuan lost the trust of the Emperor, he was not only accused of treason and was forced into the state of exile but also he could never again return to the palace and the capital.

It was during the period of his exile that he turned to writing as a cathartic relief to his sorrowness.

In the Warring Period (戰國) there were seven major powers jostled

for supremacy.

China in BC 350

In BC 278, the state of Qin (秦) to the west of Chu occupied Ying (郢), the capital of Chu and the

beloved motherland of Qu himself.

Qu was so devastated and traumatized that he decided

to end his life by throwing himself in the Miluo River, with a massive stone tied

around his waist so that he must drown himself

completely and sink into the river bed.

After the news of his suicide was spread, the local people was shocked, then immensely moved and emotionally touched by his act of heroism, self-sacrifice and the integrity that he had demonstrated throughout his life. They all gathered by the river and even

tried to retrieve his body, though to no avail.

As the desperate villagers were so worried that in the river the fishes and

other animals would consume Qu’s body, they threw dumpling (Zongzi) and food as an alternative to Qu’s

dead-body for fishes.

So the story goes, each year on the day when Qu committed suicide (五月五), Chinese people would come together to commemorate Qu by holding

the dragon boat race as a symbolic event to drive away the fish and making dumpling (Zongzi) as an edible alternative to Qu’s carcass.

Rice dumpling (Zongzi 粽子) is a traditional food during the Dragon Boat Festival

鹹肉粽 (Salted meat Zongzi) 甜粽 (Sweet Zongzi)

Zongzi in Hong Kong

Other popular Zongzi in Hong Kong

藥膳粽/臭腳粽 (“Stinky” Zongzi) 辣醬粽 (Spicy Zongzi)

Steps for making Zongzi

1. Boil the bamboo leafs until it

becomes soft.

1. Mix all ingredients (Meats,

mushroom, broad beans in a bowl)

1. Use three bamboo leafs and fold it

into triangular shape, like a pyramid.

1. Fill the pyramid with the ingredients

and glutinous rice prepared.

2. Wrap the Zongzi and put it into a pot.

Simmer it for two hours.

The dragon boat race is a traditional activity during

the Dragon Boat Festival. It is believed that during the race the noises and

cheerings can scare away fishes from eating Qu

Yuan’s dead body.

The Dragon Boat Festival has long been celebrated across different Chinese speaking communities, from China in the north

to Southeast Asia in the south.

On 19th June, 2012, China launched a manned-space mission for the third time. Three astronauts, including a female astronauts for the first time,

took Shenzhou 9 for the mission.

On 23rd June 2012 was the fourth day

since the three astronauts left earth

for space. For the first time, Chinese celebrated Dragon Boat Festival in the

outer space.

At 12 the local time, the launch centre in Jiuquan Satellite

Centre connected to the three astronauts for a talk lasted about an hour, a dialogue

called by the media “a chat from heaven to earth”. During

the chat, Liu Yang, the first female astronaut,

demonstrated in front of the camera on how she

unpackaged the Zongzi she bought from China.

To carry zongzi to the space came with different constraints. Technicians on the ground had to scrap the traditional cubic shape of a zongzi for the flat, condensed, and squeezed one. The space’s zongzi was designed according to the shape of the

food reheating machine on space.

To celebrate Dragon Boat Festival in a Hong Kong Style

Morning: Dim Sum when Yum Chai

Lunch: Dumpling

Afternoon: Lay back and watch live regatta.

Dragon Boat festival in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has long been the heartland for the celebration of Dragon Boat Festival within the Chinese community. Its celebration could trace back to the history of Hong Kong as a fishing village.

One of the main features during the festival in Hong Kong was the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Regatta.

1976 Hong Kong

Dragon Boat festival in Hong Kong

The Asia’s World City, as how the Hong Kong Tourism Board paints it, incorporates many new international elements and messages into this tradition event. In modern-day, Dragon Boat Regatta has been formalised to a fair competition through the introduction of standardised games rules, judges, and scoring institution, etc.

Foreign tourists and immigrants community in Hong Kong enjoying the Dragon Boat Carnival

A dragon boat from the Hong Kong Customs and Excise

Department, a branch under the Disciplinary Services. They will

send a team to join the Disciplinary Forces Invitational

Race during the Regatta.

Dragon Boat Festival in Sha Tin, Hong Kong

Dragon Boat Festival in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong

Dragon Boat Festival in Stanley, Hong Kong

Dragon Boat Race in Aberdeen, Hong Kong

Dragon Boat Race in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong

Dragon Boat Race in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong

Dragon Boat Race in Tai O Fishing Village, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the first place in the world to institutionalise dragon boat race, an exhilarating Chinese traditional event.

In 2016, there were over 6,000 participants and 280 teams of dragon boats competing in the Regatta.

Dragon boat race transcends gender, nationality and cultural difference. More than

ever women are able to share the joy with their male counterparts in the event.

In 2016 the Dragon Boat Regatta saw a salient increase of women willing to join the race. They approximately made up of thirty percent of the total participants.

Formal training and tutoring are provided by different associations for public who wishes to join the dragon boat race. It starts becoming a common sport among public.

Most participants of the race trains for months; some even for years. They meet multiple times a week for the training.

Content of training includes physique training such as jogging, push-up/press-up, sit-up,

and weight-lifting etc.

A Work-Life Balance: most people are free to train only during the weekend

From the late May to the match day, most people have to wake up even earlier for training before heading to work as Dragon Boat Festival is drawing closer.

A Dragon Boat Race in the Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. Organised against its fascinating panoramic view and skyline made up of skyscrapers, it is a great combination of tourism

and heritage.

Dragon Boat Race is becoming more popular (1)

Hong Kong occupies only around 1104 square Kilometers. But during the festival nearly each district has its own competition. It proves in Hong Kong how popular Dragon Boat Race is among the residents. The race is no longer limited only to fisherman nor famers.

Dragon Boat Race is becoming more popular

The joy of being part in the Dragon Boat Race appealed to foreigners. In the 2016 Regatta a Japanese participant said they had no such tradition at home. But she joined the race because she liked sport. After the race she began to appreciate this tradition even more.

Standard for the Dragon Boat Race

The dragon boat festival started off as a custom instead of a sport for competition.

In China rice has been the main staple. The life cycle of rice therefore affected how and why the Chinese celebrated Dragon Boat Festival. It was only during the early summer that the peasants could afford to spare more time on celebration because it was a period when they just finished

transplanting the rice shoot

Custom: Dragon Boat and its Crew

In the early days dragon boats was meant to carry the soul and spirit of the dead forefather in the village.

Dragon Boat and its Crew

In the past, sorcerer (巫師) engaged in ceremonial activities around the boat. Some of the boat would be drifted away freely as a tribute.

Although dragon boats were meant to carry the village ancestral soul, it represented only the male line of the family in the village. The woman's surname was always excluded.

It was because many villages adopted “lineage exogamy”, a form of marriage that women were always married out of her own village to another one.

Therefore, in the village to which she was married, woman would never be represented by a dragon boat. Men were the host and women must be an outsider.

The function of women during the race were to introduce her home village to the one she was married to, a common practice for the establishment of Guanxi between the two

villages.

The flotilla would first visit the local officials’ pavilion by the riverside, then kowtow before the race kick-started, a symbolic gesture that the state authorised such local tradition.

However, some historians thought that the Chinese Dragon boat

Festival only started to came as a festive event during the fifth and

the sixth century.

It means that dragon boat race was hardly started off as an annual festival. It was therefore less formally celebrated as we are now.

By shouting and drumming, the local belief that it helped ward off the evil spirits, a custom dating back to the Han Dynasty.

Dragon and the Boat

During the Han Dynasty, the emperor built boats decorated with dragon head. It was designed in a way to give the impression of god. But the emperor used it mainly for excursion for pleasure seeking.

Dragon Boat Festival and Tang Dynasty (618-905) (1)

Records showed that only starting from the Tang Dynasty that boat racing and dragon boat were put together as a competitive event. The custom was

believed to have adopted from the navy during the Sung Dynasty.


The act of shouting, drumming, and racing were all paramilitary customs. The military passed its influence to society and it quickly spread through China.


As the locals shouted and drummed, it also connoted the

impression to fight off the invading enemy from outside

the borderland.

Elites in the region gathered to advertise themselves through funding the event or reimbursing the crew on the boats.

In the past Dragon Boat Festival

was the day of back luck. So on

that day people would engage in

ceremonies to keep away ghosts

& bad spirits.

Some other old customs of the Dragon

Boat Festival

As a folk saying goes,

during the Festival, the

“five toxins are

awaken...so that the

peace is broken.” The

“five toxins” referred to

snakes, scorpion, gecko,

toad, and centipede.

Some other old customs of the

Dragon Boat Festival

Chinese in the past

would hang on the door

wormwood and iris to

keep the misfortune

and toxic spirits away.



In the past, Huangjiu

(a type of Chinese

wine) was used as a

insecticide. During the

Festival, people

drinks it to avoid evil.



Women in the past

wore sachet with clove

inside, an odorant

giving out smell with

an effect to avoid bad

lucks.



In the past, wearing “five-color silk” around

the wrist during the Dragon Boat Festival

would lead to good luck .



During the Festival,

people believed that if

they could erect an egg

upright, it brought them

good luck.

(春分到，蛋兒俏。)



the tradition of the dragon boat festival and its myth.pptx

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