The day is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival because dragon boat races are its most popular activity, especially in Southern China. A dragon boat is shaped like a dragon and brightly painted in red, white, yellow and black. Usually, a dragon boat is 20-40 meters long and must be rowed by several dozen people. The boatmen row the boat to drumbeats, as the captain, who stands at the bow of the boat, waves a small flag to help coordinate them. Before the race gets underway, a solemn ceremony is held to worship the Dragon King.

 Old customs

The Duanwu Festival used to feature other interesting customs that are no longer commonly observed, except maybe in some rural areas.

The ancient Chinese believed that the day of the Dragon Boat was unlucky since mid-summer was just around the corner. The hot weather used to bring various diseases, which could spread rampantly. Dispelling disease and driving out evil were the main purposes of the festival. People would paste images of Zhong Kui , a famous door god in Chinese legend, on their front doors. Since children are generally the most vulnerable to disease, they received extra care at this special time. Children would wear necklaces or bracelets made of red, yellow, blue, white and black thread, to ward off evil away. They also received colorful pouches containing fragrant herbal medicines as presents, which they hung around their necks and would compete with one another to see whose pouch had the finest needlework. Mothers also made sure to bathe their children in water boiled with herbal medicine. Modern science has proven that such medicine is, in fact, quite beneficial to health.

Ancient Chinese believed that realgar was an antidote for all poisons and most effective in driving away evil spirits and killing insects. Everyone would therefore drink realgar wine during the Duanwu Festival and children had the Chinese character for "king" written on their foreheads with realgar wine.

Page:

1

2

3

4

5