May 5th of The Lunar Calendar - the Dragon Boat Festival

Editor's Note:

The Dragon Boat Festival falls on every May 5 of the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival, bearing the 2000-plus years'Chinese culture and undergoing the ablution of the long history, is still shining for its rich traditional cultural connotations, delivering the diligence and wisdom of the working people. The traditional Dragon Boat Festival is coming again; the ancient customs are turning into beautiful wishes of the common mass. Once again the fragrance of the indocamalus leaves is drifting in the air, and the drum on the dragon boat is beating. Let us deliver our common wish that the people in the quake-hit area would be far from disasters and diseases and begin their new life with high morale.
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The Origin of the Dragon Boat Festival

Early in the Tang Dynasty, the festival was named "duanwu jie" or "chongwu jie" (double fifth festival). It is said that August 5 was the birthday of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty; to avoid writing "wu" (five), the word was substituted by its homophone, "wu" (noon). About the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are varied sayings which can be summed up as follows:

Version 1:

The saying of summer solstice---people deem that the Dragon Boat Festival originates from the custom of summer solstice in the ancient Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties. 

Version 2:
Totem C it holds that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the totem worship of dragon of the ancient Wu and Yue people. May 5 of the lunar calendar was the day when the people in the Wu and Yue areas held the totem sacrifice. Boat racing has an especially deep relation with the ancient Wu and Yue areas; moreover, among the people in the region there was the custom of cutting hair and tattooing so as to "look like the son of the dragon". 

Version 3:

"Vicious Day" C It is said that the custom of hanging mugwort and calamus on the Festival is to ward off diseases in summer, which is correspondent to the pre-Qin Dynasty myth that May was a "vicious month" and May 5 "vicious day". 

Version 4:
In honor of Qu Yuan C It is commonly recognized that the Dragon Boat Festival is to memorize the loyal official of the Chu State C Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Miluo River during the Warring States Period. Qu Yuan was slandered by some treacherous official and exiled to the south by King Huai of the Chu State. Seeing that his homeland was declining day by day, Qu Yuan, in great grief and despair, drown himself in the Miluo River near Changsha,

Hanging the Portrait of Zhong Kui 

Eating Zongzi

Wearing a Sachet

Wearing a Sachet

Paint the Forehead

Ward off the Five Deadly Venoms

Hanging Mugwort and Calamus

Dragon Boat Racing

Clean the sticky rice with clear water and soak it with 60 water for 5 hours, or steep it in cold water for 12 hours. Soak the wrapping material in cold water for 12 hours.Then wrap the rice.

Fill in some sticky rice and dates (or pork) into the funnel. The dates can be put in first before being covered with sticky rice, or be put in the middle of the rice.

Then cover the mouth of the funnel with the longer end of the indocamalus leaves.

Wrap the stuff into a pentagonal shape, or triangular or quadrangular shape. The key point is to wrap the stuff tightly so that it will not be dispersed while being boiled.

Finally, tie up the zongzi with a thread. It is essential that the zongzi is fast tied, or it will also be dispersed while being boiled.

You've made it!