The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, May Festival and Double Fifth Festival,is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese
calendar.
It is a traditional Chinese festival. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, the Dragon Boat Festival was a festival for preventing illness and epidemic. Then it became a festival for Chinese Han nationality to mourn the sacrifice of Qu Yuan and to cherish the noble and unsullied spirits of Chinese people. The festival has been marked by eating zong zi (glutinous rice wrapped to form a pyramid using bamboo or reed leaves), racing dragon boats, drinking realgar wine, hanging mugwort and calamus, wearing perfumed medicine bags and braiding silk threads of 5 colors. These activities are very common in China.
The Dragon Boat Festival: June 16th – June 18th