【2023 Dragon Boat Festival】The origin, customs, must-eat foods and activities of the Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese lunar festival. This article will take you to understand the origin and date of the Dragon Boat Festival, as well as what other important customs and activities there are besides eating rice dumplings and dragon boat racing. Let V editor tell you all at once.

Dragon Boat Festival Origin and Date

The most widely known origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is the story of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet from the State of Chu during the Warring States Period. According to legend, Qu Yuan was loyal and patriotic all his life, but the King of Chu listened to treacherous ministers and exiled Qu Yuan. Later, the State of Qin occupied the State of Chu. Qu Yuan was so heartbroken that he committed suicide by hugging a rock in the Miluo River. Later, when people learned about the news, they rushed to the river to look for Qu Yuan’s body. Fearing that fish and shrimp would eat the body, they wrapped rice in bamboo tubes and threw them into the river for fish and shrimp to eat. This later evolved into the custom of making rice dumplings. People also rowed boats on the river to look for Qu Yuan’s body and beat gongs and drums to scare away fish and shrimp to protect Qu Yuan’s body from harm. This later evolved into the custom of dragon boat racing.

Another origin is that in the beginning there was a nation in China that worshipped the dragon totem. They would hold totem sacrifices on May 5th every year. They would also hold tribal totem sacrifices in the form of dragon boat races. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival existed a long time ago. It is not only to commemorate Qu Yuan, but also to commemorate Wu Zixu, a doctor of the State of Wu.

The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year. It has many nicknames such as: Zongzi Festival, Duanyang Festival, Mid-day Festival, May Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Orchid Bathing Festival.

What are the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival?

• • Dragon Boat Race

According to legend, in order to find Qu Yuan’s body, people rowed boats on the river and beat drums and gongs to scare away fish and shrimps. This later evolved into dragon boat racing.

• • Drink Realgar

The Dragon Boat Festival also represents the official arrival of the hot summer. Many snakes and insects begin to become active, and plagues become more frequent. The origin of drinking realgar wine is because of the Legend of the White Snake. The white snake showed its true form after drinking realgar wine. People believed that realgar wine could have the function of exorcising evil spirits, but now no one drinks it anymore because realgar wine contains poisonous substances.

• • Hanging mugwort and calamus

Mugwort is a herb that can cure diseases. The moxibustion method in acupuncture uses mugwort as the main ingredient. Putting mugwort on acupuncture points for fumigation can be used to regulate the body. Mugwort also represents good fortune, and if placed at the door it can bring good health to the owner.

Acorus calamus is the first of the five auspicious plants in the sky. Its leaves are shaped like swords, symbolizing a sword that can drive away evil. Putting it at the door of your home can ward off evil.

The Dragon Boat Festival is also the first festival after the beginning of summer. The temperature rises, and it is a period when diseases and plagues are prevalent. Therefore, people will hang mugwort and calamus at their doorsteps to drive away diseases, prevent mosquitoes, and ward off evil spirits.

• • Tie five-color silk thread

The five colors of silk threads are blue, red, white, black and yellow, which are considered auspicious colors. On the Dragon Boat Festival, children tie five-colored silk threads on their wrists and ankles to ensure safety and health.

Therefore, on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, the first thing adults do when they get up is to tie five-colored silk threads on children’s wrists, ankles and even necks. The child cannot speak while the string is being tied.

The five-colored thread must not be broken or discarded at will. It can only be thrown into the river when the first heavy rain comes in summer or when taking a bath for the first time. It means letting the river water wash away plague and disease to ensure safety and health.

• • Wearing a scent bag

The sachet is also called a scent bag, a sachet, or a purse. There are many ways to make it. Some are made by wrapping five-colored silk threads, while others are made by sewing rags. The bag is filled with various spices such as cinnabar, realgar, and various rich herbs. When worn on the chest, it exudes a fragrant smell. There are certain rules for wearing a sachet. Tying it on a child’s arm with five-colored threads will help him live a hundred years. It is called a longevity thread. Young people are also very particular about wearing incense. If they are a couple in love, the girl will carefully make a unique sachet and give it to her lover during the Dragon Boat Festival.

What are the must-eat foods during the Dragon Boat Festival?

• • Dragon Boat Festival Food-Zongzi

Eating zongzi is a traditional custom of the Dragon Boat Festival. To commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, every household soaks glutinous rice, washes zong leaves and makes zongzi on the fifth day of May every year. There are many types of fillings, including salted egg yolks, peanuts, meat, mushrooms, chestnuts, etc., which vary according to the eating habits of each region.

• • Dragon Boat Festival Food-Wu Zi

Taiwan’s Dragon Boat Festival retains the traditional Han Chinese Dragon Boat Festival customs, which include eating the five kinds of food: rice dumplings, beans, eggplants, plums, and peaches! According to traditional culture, eating gooseberry represents health and longevity. In traditional Chinese medicine, eggplant is a cold food, so eating it in the summer can help clear away heat and relieve summer heat. The Dragon Boat Festival happens to be the season for peaches and plums. There is a Taiwanese proverb: “Eat peaches on May Day to get fat, eat plums to lose weight.” This means that peaches are sweet and plump, but if you eat too many you will get fat. Plums can aid digestion, so they are very suitable for people who want to lose weight. There is a Taiwanese proverb about green beans: “Eat eggplant until you shake, eat beans until you are old.” In the southern part of the country, it is said that eating beans can prevent snake bites, because beans are shaped like snakes.

• • Dragon Boat Festival Food – Eel

The Dragon Boat Festival happens to be the time when eels are the fattest, most tender and most nutritious. Not only are they fragrant, they also taste the best. There is even a saying among the people that “Dragon Boat Festival eels are better than ginseng.” The eel has a soft and tender texture and is free of bones. It is one of the most popular freshwater fish species. The eel stewed with Chinese medicine has a rich and sweet aroma and is a great nourishing delicacy.

• • Dragon Boat Festival Food-Jian Dumpling

In Tainan, in addition to eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, people also eat a delicacy called “Jian Dui”. It is said that when Zheng Chenggong led his army into Taiwan, there was a shortage of rice, so there was no rice to make rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival. So they mixed potato starch, peanuts, beans and other foods sent by the locals together, fried them in oil and made a “pile” to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

• • Dragon Boat Festival Food-Five Poison Cakes

In the past, people believed that early summer was the time when all kinds of poisonous mosquitoes, snakes, scorpions and other venomous creatures were most active, so they would use the method of fighting poison with poison. Later, this evolved into the “Five Poison Cakes” with scorpions, spiders, snakes, centipedes and toads printed on them, which became a kind of cake that could protect the body from health and ward off evil spirits. Although the Five Poisons Cake sounds scary, the fillings are filled with sweet or healthy ingredients such as red bean paste, date paste, hawthorn or five nuts, etc.

What kinds of rice dumplings are there for the Dragon Boat Festival?

There are many ways to wrap Taiwanese rice dumplings: southern rice dumplings, northern rice dumplings, glutinous rice dumplings, and alkaline rice dumplings. The wrapping methods and shapes of these rice dumplings are different. Some are long strips or rectangles, squares, triangles, etc.

• • Characteristics of Southern and Northern Zongzi

It is easy to distinguish between the rice dumplings in southern and northern Taiwan. Usually, an expert can tell which type of rice dumpling they are eating as soon as they open the rice dumpling leaves.

The texture of the northern zongzi is that the rice grains taste like oily rice, and are paired with salted egg yolks, mushrooms, meat, etc. The zongzi leaves are used to wrap them, and when steamed, there will be a natural fragrance mixed with the zongzi leaves. The southern zongzi is made by adding fried shallots, salted egg yolks, pork, mushrooms, peanuts, chestnuts, etc. to the glutinous rice, and the cooking method is to put the zongzi directly into boiling water and then eat it.

• • Dip the glutinous rice dumpling in sugar

The small alkaline rice dumplings are exquisite, cute and available in original flavor as well as with sweet red bean fillings. They also have a crunchy texture when paired with sugar.

In addition, many people now like to dip it in fructose or boiled sugar water before eating. The sweet taste fills your mouth after taking a bite and you can’t stop eating it.

• • The glutinous rice dumplings are chewy and have a mochi-like texture

The texture of kueh zong is chewy and chewy, filled with salty and fragrant minced meat and paired with a special mochi-like texture that is unforgettable.

Another method is to make sweet rice dumplings, which use peanuts as the filling to give it a salty and sweet aroma and a fragrant taste.

What are the Dragon Boat Festival activities in 2023?

2023 Dragon Boat Festival Events | Taipei

2023 Dragon Boat Festival Events | Kaohsiung

2023 Dragon Boat Festival Events | Changhua

Recommended accommodation during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday