介绍:
Dragon Boat Festival
The Duanwu Festival, also often known, especially in the West , as the Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional holiday originating in China, occurring near the summer solstice.
The story best known in modern China holds that the festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty.
A cadet member 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 and even accused of treason.[10] During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the City of Ying, the Chu’s capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi.
Three of the most widespread activities conducted during the Duanwu Festival are eating and preparing zongzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.
