The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival


The Dragon Boat Festival is a lunar (陰歷)holiday, occurring (存正)on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (農歷史五月第五天)


The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant (有意義的)holiday celebrated (慶祝)in China, and the one with the longest history (歷史最悠久). The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races (龍舟賽) in the shape of dragons. Competing teams (競爭團隊) row their boats forward to a drumbeat (擊古)racing to reach the finish end first.



The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs (傳統習俗)to attempts to (試圖)rescue (搭救) the patriotic poet (國詩人)Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned (溺死) on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves (竹葉) filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating tzungtzu and rice dumplings(棕子).

The celebration\'s is a for protection (防護) from evil (邪惡) and disease (疾病) for the rest of the year. It is done so by different practices such as hanging healthy herbs on the front door, drinking nutritious concoctions (營養品), and displaying (展示) portraits (畫像) of evil\'s nemesis(邪惡報應), Chung Kuei. If one manages to (做...) stand (直立)an egg on it\'s end at exactly 12:00 noon, the following year will be a lucky one.


(Dragon Boat Festival)

The Dragon Boat Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar(陰歷). It is one of the three most important of the annual Chinese festivals. The other two are the Autumn Moon Festival and Chinese New Year.
The story of this colorful festival concerns a famous Chinese scholar-statesman(政治) named Chu Yuan(屈原) who, some three centuries before the birth of Christ, served the King of Chu(楚懷王)during the Warring States period. As a loyal minister(大臣), Chu Yuan at first enjoyed the full confidence and respect of his sovereign(君主). Eventually, through the intrigues of his rivals, he was discredited(不足信的, 不名譽的).
Chu Yuan was never able to regain(恢復) the emperor's favor and on the fifth day of the fifth moon in the year 295 B.C.(Before Christ), at the age of 37, Chu Yuan clasped a stone to his chest and plunged into the Milo River(汨羅江) in the Hunan Province(湖南省).
Respecting the minister as an upright(正直的) and honest man, the people who lived in the area jumped into their boats and rushed out in a vain search for him. This unsuccessful rescue attempt is a part of what the Dragon Boat Festival coemorates every year.
Probably the most exciting and interesting aspect of the festival is the racing of the Dragon Boats. These races not only symbolize the people's attempt to save Chu Yuan, they also demonstrate the Chinese virtues(美德) of cooperation and teamwork.
Another activity of the Festival is the making and eating of a kind of dumpling called Tzungtzu (粽子). When it became known that Chu Yuan was gone forever, the people, along the river, threw cooked rice into the water as a sacrifice(祭品) to their dead hero. They wrapped(包) rice in bamboo leaves(粽葉), and stuffed(填滿) it with ham, beans, bean paste(豆沙), salted egg yokes, sausages, nuts, and/or vegetables.
To the Chinese the fifth lunar moon is more than just the Dragon Boat Festival. Since antiquity(古代), they have believed that this month is a pestilential and danger-fraught(瘟疫的及充滿危險的) period. Children born in this month are said to be difficult to raise(撫養), and people tend to concentrate their efforts during this time attempting to protect their families from ills and misfortune. The day of the Dragon Boat Festival is customarily the time when cleaning and sanitation(衛生) are stressed(著重, 強調). Most families hang calamus(菖蒲) and artemisia(艾草) above their doors, both as a decoration and as a preventive against pestilence.
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