The Duanwu Festival (in Mandarin Chinese pronunciation) or Tuen Ng Festival (in Cantonese Chinese pronunciation) is a Chinese traditional and statutory holiday. It is a public holiday in mainland China and Taiwan, where it is called the "Duanwu Jie" and a public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau, where it is called the "Tuen Ng Jit". In English it is also referred to as "Dragon Boat Festival", after one of the traditional activities for the holiday.

The Duanwu Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, giving rise to the alternative name of Double Fifth . In 2008, this falls on 8 June. The focus of the celebrations includes eating zongzi, which are large rice wraps, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

The Duanwu Festival has also been celebrated in other East Asian nations. For their equivalent or related celebrations, such as Kodomo no hi in Japan, Dano in Korea, Tết Đoan Ngọ in Vietnam.

Etymology

In English it is referred to as "Dragon Boat Festival", after one of the traditional activities for the holiday. This name has no equivalent in Chinese. Its literal translation in Chinese (longzhou jie) could refer to any dragon boating competition.

A more accurate literal translation of "Duanwu" in English might be "Solar Maximus Festival".

The etymology and significance of the two terms used to refer to the festival, "duan wu" and "duan yang" (both double character expressions), have to be properly understood in order to appreciate the true significance of this annual festival; namely the summer solstice or longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The character yang means sun, while wu refers to the sun at the meridian or its high point in the sky of the day (high noon). (Shangwu and Xiawu correspond to A.M. and P.M. (ante merdian and post meridian), forenoon and afternoon. Zhongwu is noon or twelve o'clock mid-day.) Duan carries the meanings of extremity, upright and proper.

Date

Whereas the actual summer solstice is determined according to Gregorian calendar reckoning (where months have 30, 31, 28 or, in leap years, 29 days), duanwu is reckoned in accordance with calendars based on lunar months consisting of 29 or 30 days. So, like Christian Easter, duan wu - the fifth day of the fifth moon or double fifth - drifts from year to year on the western calendar. Leap months are inserted periodically to keep the "year" based on 12 or 13 lunar months of 29 or 30 days in synchrony with the "year" based on 12 months of 28 - 31 days. (Chinese New Year and other traditional holidays also drift, with the exception of Qing Ming which is always at the beginning of April. Some Chinese also observe the Double Eighth and the Double Tenth, however the 10th day of the 10th month / October has political significance for some and is pegged to the Gregorian rather than luni-solar calendar of Chinese tradition.)

The sun is considered to be at its most powerful around the time of summer solstice ("mid-summer" in traditional China, but "beginning" of summer elsewhere) when the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. Yang (sun), like long (mythical Chinese dragon), is considered to be male, whereas yue (moon), like feng huang (mythical Chinese phoenix bird), is considered to be female. Summer solstice is male whereas winter solstice (longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere) is female. So it is natural to venerate the male dragon at the time that the sun is at its maximal strength, that is, at duan wu. This gender-related aspect corresponds to the fact that in Japan, the Double Fifth was traditionally referred to as "boys day", although this was changed to "children's day" around 50 years ago.

The very familiar Yin-Yang (shadow-light) Taiji symbol similarly reflects the traditional Chinese world view of the duality of forces and are part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory. The use of herbs and plants, realgar wine, mugwort, etc. to ward off evils during the height of the summer heat around the time of dragon boat races and duan wu reflects TCM concepts as well, which are founded on Daoist traditions of "alchemy".

History and Romance

Origins

The Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in ancient China. There are a number of theories about its origins. There are a number folk traditions, beliefs and explanatory myths connected to the observance. Today, the best, most widely known legend relates to the death by suicide of Qu Yuan, a Confucian scholar and minister to the King of Chu, in 278 BC an era in Chinese history that is referred to as the Warring States period. Scholars wrote literary works, including poetry. Qu Yuan is commonly referred to as a "poet" and a "statesman", however he is more properly considered as a ministerial Confucian scholar.

Qu Yuan

The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC - 278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.

Wu Zixu

Despite the modern popularity of the Qu Yuan origin theory, in the former territory of the state of Wu the festival commemorated Wu Zixu (526 BC - 484 BC). Like Qu Yuan, Wu Zixu was a loyal advisor whose advice was ignored by the king to the detriment of the kingdom. Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide by the king Fuchai, with his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, Wu Zixu was revered as a river god. In places such as Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Duanwu Festival to this day.

Indeed, many folkloric figures in Chinese literature and tradition drowned, both male and female, which is a type of ritual suicide in the same sense that seppuku in Japanese traditional culture is a manner of ritualistic suicide.

Madame White Snake

Pre-existing holiday

Modern researchers have theorized that the commemoration of Qu Yuan or Wu Zixu were superimposed onto an existing holiday tradition, but has subsequently overtaken the original significance. This has to do with the position of Confucian scholars wanting to legitimize and strengthen their eminence at the time in Chinese history when Buddhism was being introduced to China and is related to the Records of the Grand Historian of that era.

One theory points to the traditional rituals of the Duanwu Festival, which mostly relate to avoiding diseases. Thus, it is said, Duanwu Festival originates from rituals designed to avoid disease during the mid-summer months (corresponding to the fifth month of the Chinese calendar).

Another theory, advocated by Wen Yiduo, is that the Duanwu Festival had its origins in dragon worship. Support is drawn from two key traditions of the festival: the zongzi and dragon boat racing. Throwing food (zongzi) into the river is said to represent offerings to the dragon king, while dragon boat racing comes from the worship of the dragon, combined with the tradition of visiting friends and family on boats.

One view is that the festival is a celebration that is characteristic of ancient agrarian societies in East Asia: the celebration of the harvest of winter wheat. Offerings would be made to gods and spirits on this date: in the ancient Yue, dragon kings; in the ancient Chu, Qu Yuan; in the ancient Wu, Wu Zixu (as a river god); in ancient Korea, mountain gods (see Dano (Korean festival)). As interactions between different regions increased, these similar festivals were eventually merged under the same name.

Republican China

In the early years of the Republic of China, Duan Wu was also celebrated as "Poets' Day," due to Qu Yuan's status as China's first poet of personal renown. During the initial Republican period following the unseating of the last dynastic rulers (the Qing dynasty), there was a rise in nationalistic fervor and patriotism among the intelligentsia. Honoring and celebrating Qu Yuan as a faithful "patrior" of the warring states era was consistent with the growing pride in Chinese self-determination. In the 1950s, under the Chinese Communist Party, Qu Yuan was similarly venerated as a "patriotic poet", consistent with the emergence of the modern Chinese state. See also Guo Moruo.

Public holiday

The festival was long marked as a holiday culturally in China. However, the People's Republic of China government, established in 1949, for a long time excluded traditional holidays such as Duanwu from its list of public holidays. From 2005, the government began to plan for the adoption of three traditional holidays, including Duanwu, as a public holiday. In 2008, Duanwu was celebrated in mainland China as a public holiday for the first time.

Activities

Three of the most widespread activities for the Duanwu Festival are eating (and preparing) zongzi, an angular rice ball wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves; drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Other common activities include hanging up icons of Zhong Kui (a mythic guardian figure), hanging up mugwort and calamus, taking long walks, and wearing perfumed medicine bags. Other traditional activities including a game of making an egg stand at noon, and writing spells. All of these activities, together with the drinking of realgar wine, are designed to ward off disease or evil.

See also

• Dano
• Kodomo no hi
• Tết Đoan Ngọ

References

External links

• See original pictures of Qu Yuan's hometown (now submerged by waters of three gorges dam project) and his country capital
• Dragon Boat Net, about the dragon boat sport and its tradition
• More pictures on Hong Kong official tourism website about Dragon Boat Festival
• More pictures of Dragon Boat Festival
• Dragon Boat World Int. - the worlds dragon boat magazine
• Official website of the world federation for dragonboat racing