Duanwu Festival

The Duanwu Festival or Tuen Ng Festival is a traditional and statutory holiday. It is a public holiday in mainland China and Taiwan, where it is called the "Duanwu Jie" and a public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau, where it is called the "Tuen Ng Jit". In it is also referred to as "Dragon Boat Festival", after one of the traditional activities for the holiday.

The Duanwu Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, giving rise to the alternative name of Double Fifth . In 2008, this falls on 8 June. The focus of the celebrations includes eating ''zongzi'', which are large rice wraps, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

The Duanwu Festival has also been celebrated in other East Asian nations. For their equivalent or related celebrations, such as Kodomo no hi in Japan, in Korea, T& in Vietnam.

Etymology

In it is referred to as "Dragon Boat Festival", after one of the traditional activities for the holiday. This name has no equivalent in Chinese. Its literal translation in Chinese could refer to any dragon boating competition.

A more accurate literal translation of "Duanwu" in English might be "Solar Maximus Festival".

The etymology and significance of the two terms used to refer to the festival "duan wu" and "duan yang" have to be properly understood in order to appreciate the true significance of this annual festival; namely the summer solstice or longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The character yang means sun, while wu refers to the sun at the meridian or its high point in the sky of the day . Shangwu and Xiawu correspond to A.M. and P.M. . Zhongwu is noon or twelve o'clock mid-day. Duan carries the meanings of extremity, upright and proper.

Date

Whereas the actual summer solstice is determined according to Gregorian calendar reckoning , duanwu is reckoned in accordance with calendars based on lunar months consisting of 29 or 30 days. So, like Christian Easter, duan wu - the fifth day of the fifth moon or double fifth - drifts from year to year on the western calendar. Leap months are inserted periodically to keep the "year" based on 12 or 13 lunar months of 29 or 30 days in synchrony with the "year" based on 12 months of 28 - 31 days.

The sun is considered to be at its most powerful around the time of summer solstice when the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. Yang , like long , is considered to be male, whereas yue , like feng huang , is considered to be female. Summer solstice is male whereas winter solstice is female. So it is natural to venerate the male dragon at the time that the sun is at its maximal strength, that is, at duan wu. This gender-related aspects corresponds to the fact that in Japan, the Double Fifth was traditionally referred to as "boys day", although this was changed to "children's day" around 50 years ago.

The very familiar Yin-Yang Taiji symbol similarly reflects the traditional Chinese world view of the duality of forces and are part of Traditional Chinese Medicine theory. The use of herbs and plants, realgar wine, mugwort, etc. to ward off evils during the height of the summer heat around the time of dragon boat races and duan wu reflects TCM concepts as well, which are founded on Daoist traditions of "alchemy".

History and Romance

Origins

The Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in ancient Northern Chinese Regions. There are a number of theories about its origins. Today, the most commonly accepted version relates to the death of poet Qu Yuan in 278 BC despite a number of competing theories.

Qu Yuan

The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan of the ancient state of , in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful , Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. In 2008, Duanwu was celebrated in mainland China as a public holiday for the first time.

Activities

Three of the most widespread activities for the Duanwu Festival are eating ''zongzi'', an angular rice ball wrapped in reed or bamboo leaves; drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Other common activities include hanging up icons of Zhong Kui , hanging up mugwort and calamus, taking long walks, and wearing perfumed medicine bags. Other traditional activities including a game of making an egg stand at noon, and writing . All of these activities, together with the drinking of realgar wine, are designed to ward off disease or evil.