Top 10 fun filled facts about the Dragon Boat Festival

Hello again Gentle Reader. As I mentioned in my earlier post this weekend is the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival and we have Monday off school to celebrate. I thought I would take the opportunity to let you know a bit about it.

1. The Dragon Boat festival is called Duanwu in Mandarin and Tuan Ng in Cantonese.

2. It takes place on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese Lunar calendar.

3. The Boats are designed to look like Chinese dragons.

4. The boats are raced by teams of 10-50 rowers.

5. It is believed that the winning team will have the best harvest.

6. The festival actually commemorates the suicide of Chinese poet Qu Yuan.

7. The boat race is to symbolise the boats that tried to save him from drowming.

8. Traditionally during the holiday special sticky rice dumplings called zongzi are eaten because the people who tried to save Qu Yuan threw them into the water so the fish would eat the dumplings, not the poet.

9. During the festival children tie coloured ribbons around their wrists and ankles to protect them from illness.

10. Mugwart and calamus plants are hung on doors to keep insects away.

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