Dragon Boat Festival 端午節 The 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar.

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The Dragon Boat Festival (端午節/赛龙舟) is a traditional Chinese cultural holiday, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar every year. It is one of the four major Chinese festivals, along with the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and holds equal importance.

The Dragon Boat Festival is known by many names, such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Duanyang Festival, Herbal Festival, Zhongyang Festival, Rice Dumpling Festival, and Poet's Festival. The earliest reference to the name "Duanwu" can be found in the "Record of Customs" by Zhou Chu of the Jin Dynasty. Some believe that "Duan" means "upright" and consider the Dragon Boat Festival to be the Upright Yang Festival.

There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. The most common explanation is that it commemorates Qu Yuan or Wu Zixu, loyal subjects, poets, and politicians of the State of Chu during the Warring States period. The earliest written record of this can be found in "Xu Qi Xie Ji" by Wu Jun of the Southern Dynasty Liang, which notes that Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. In mourning, the people of Chu threw rice wrapped in bamboo tubes into the river as an offering to Qu Yuan. The "Records of Xiangyang Customs" from the Tang Dynasty also mention that rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo and five-colored silk were used to prevent the food offered to Qu Yuan from being eaten by dragons. However, the "Supplement to the Gazetteer of Suzhou Prefecture" indicates that the rice dumplings of the Dragon Boat Festival were meant to honor Wu Zixu, not Qu Yuan.

The customs of the Dragon Boat Festival include taboos related to "evil days" and activities such as dragon boat racing. These customs may have evolved from a blend of various origins over the centuries. Many Dragon Boat Festival traditions are associated with the belief in warding off poisons and epidemics, stemming from taboos related to "evil days." Traditionally, the midsummer month of May was considered an "evil month" due to the prevalence of epidemics. To prevent diseases in May, people have practiced various purification and protective measures since ancient times. According to the "Record of Seasonal Rituals in Jingchu" by Zong Lin of the Southern Liang Dynasty, May was commonly known as the "evil month," with numerous taboos, such as prohibitions on sun-drying bedding and straw mats and on building houses. The fifth day of May was considered the most inauspicious day of the year, necessitating rituals to ward off evil.

In addition to driving away plagues and epidemics, many Dragon Boat Festival customs are related to dragons. Major customs such as dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings are connected to dragon totem worship. It is said that the ancient people of Wu and Yue regarded themselves as descendants of dragons and held totem worship ceremonies on the fifth day of the fifth month each year to pray for favorable weather and a bountiful harvest. They would wrap food in leaves or place it in bamboo tubes and throw it into the river. Later, they also began to visit friends and relatives in dugout canoes on this day. When they were happy, they would spontaneously hold dugout canoe races, which gradually evolved into the dragon boat races of today's Dragon Boat Festival.

Zongzi (a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves) is one of the traditional foods for the Dragon Boat Festival, with various regional methods of preparation. Traditionally, it is made with white rice (though other grains such as millet, taro, corn, and sorghum may also be used) wrapped in leaves. The fillings can include ingredients like sweet bean paste, mung beans, red beans, black-eyed peas, soybeans, Chinese sausage, salted duck egg, peanuts, chestnuts, corn, mushrooms, dried shrimp, and pork, and it is cooked by boiling or steaming. The earliest Chinese documentation of zongzi appears in the "Record of Customs" by Zhou Chu from the Western Jin Dynasty in the 3rd century CE, and it originally had no connection to worship. Over centuries, people integrated its origins into various local beliefs, associating it with the worship of dragons, Wu Zixu, or legends related to Qu Yuan.

In September 2009, UNESCO inscribed the Dragon Boat Festival on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making it the first Chinese festival to be included in the world intangible cultural heritage list.

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