The Dragon Boat Festival: Duanwu, the poet and the races

On the river, a long slender hull cuts through the water to the beat of a drum. At the prow, a carved dragon's head stares at the horizon; aboard, some twenty paddlers strike the surface in unison, carried by the cries of the crowd packed on the banks. At the same moment, in kitchens, hands fold bamboo leaves around a fistful of sticky rice. Drum and steam: these are the two faces of one and the same festival, Duanwu.

The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu, is one of the great festivals of the Chinese calendar, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Spectacular races, fragrant rice dumplings, gestures of protection against the diseases of summer: behind its postcard images hides a rich festival, blending the memory of a poet, the warding off of ills and popular rejoicing.

The fifth day of the fifth month#

Duanwu falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which generally means June in the Gregorian calendar. This timing is no accident: the festival marks the entry into the heart of summer, a period that Chinese tradition associates with heat, humidity and the proliferation of disease and "noxious creatures."

A large part of Duanwu's rites aim precisely to ward off evil. People hang bunches of mugwort and calamus on their doors, aromatic plants reputed to be protective; they make scented pouches filled with herbs for children; some drink realgar wine. Before being the festival of a poet, Duanwu was first a festival of summer and of health.

Duanwu does not only push away the ills of the body: each year, it sets the community in motion around the water.

Qu Yuan, the poet of the river#

The most famous legend ties Duanwu to the figure of Qu Yuan, poet and minister of the kingdom of Chu, in the third century BCE. A faithful counsellor exiled by a sovereign who preferred courtiers to him, Qu Yuan is said to have watched, powerless, the ruin of his country. In despair, he is said to have thrown himself into the Miluo River to find his death there.

The story goes that, on the announcement of his drowning, the villagers rushed out in boats on the river to try to recover his body, striking the water with their paddles and beating the drum to frighten the fish. To prevent the latter from devouring the poet's remains, they are said to have thrown wrapped rice dumplings into the water — the ancestor of the zongzi. From this act of piety were born, tradition says, the two master customs of the festival: the boat races and the rice dumplings.

The longzhou races#

Today, it is the dragon boat races that give the festival its name in the West. The boats, long and narrow, are adorned with a carved and painted dragon's head and tail. Aboard, a team of paddlers — often twenty or more — synchronises its strokes to the sound of a drum placed at the prow, whose drummer sets the cadence while a steersman holds the course.

The image of the dragon is no accident: master of waters and rains in Chinese cosmology, it presides over the agricultural cycle of summer. The races, long a propitiatory rite for good harvests, have become a sport in their own right, practised from Hong Kong to Singapore and exported around the world in the form of international competitions. The drum, the dragon and the collective effort of the paddles: everything in the race speaks of the union of a community facing the water.

The zongzi, edible memory#

The other symbol of Duanwu is eaten: the zongzi, a pyramid of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, tied up then steamed or boiled. Its filling varies from region to region: in the north, it is often preferred sweet, stuffed with jujube or red bean paste; in the south, savoury, filled with pork, salted egg yolk or chestnut.

To unwrap a still-warm zongzi is to repeat each year the gesture attributed to the villagers of the Miluo. The leaf that wraps the rice is not just packaging: it perfumes the dough and tells, in its own way, the story of a poet whom people sought to protect. Few dishes carry their founding tale so clearly.

A living festival, recognised by UNESCO#

In 2009, the Dragon Boat Festival was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity — the first traditional Chinese festival to receive this distinction. The recognition crowns a celebration still very much alive: a public holiday in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, it gathers families and villages along the banks at the start of each summer.

From the Miluo River to Olympic rowing basins, from the home where the zongzi are folded to the stands of international competitions, Duanwu has crossed more than two millennia without losing any of its force. To discover it is to hear a drum beating as old as Chinese memory — and to learn Chinese is to be able to read the poet's name on the river, understand why the dragon leads the race and grasp the hidden meaning of the "fifth day."

FAQ#

What is the Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu)? Duanwu (端午节) is a traditional Chinese festival celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (generally in June). It is marked by dragon boat races, the eating of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and rites of protection against the diseases of summer.

What is the link between Duanwu and the poet Qu Yuan? Legend has it that the festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a poet of the kingdom of Chu drowned in the Miluo River in the third century BCE. Villagers are said to have paddled out to recover his body and thrown rice into the water to protect it from the fish — hence the boat races and the zongzi.

What do people eat during the Dragon Boat Festival? People eat zongzi (粽子), pyramids of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, sweet (jujube, red bean) in the north or savoury (pork, egg yolk) in the south, steamed or boiled.

Is Duanwu recognised by UNESCO? Yes. In 2009, the Dragon Boat Festival was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, becoming the first traditional Chinese festival to receive this recognition.

Photo credits: the images used in this article come from Pexels and Unsplash and are royalty-free.