Safe and Healthy Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival in China, commemorating the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. He drowned himself in the Miluo River on the 5th day of the 5th Chinese lunar month, when his beloved Chu State fell to the State of Qin. Local people desperately tried to save Qu Yuan or recover his body, to no avail.

In order to commemorate Qu Yuan, every fifth day of the fifth lunar month people beat drums and paddle out in boats on the river as they once did to keep fish and evil spirits away from his body. 

Zongzi are the most traditional Dragon Boat Festival food. Related to Qu Yuan commemoration, the legend says that lumps of rice (not unlike zongzi) were thrown into the river to stop fish eating his drowned body.

Zongzi are made of glutinous rice filled with meats, beans, and other fillings. They are wrapped in triangle or rectangle shapes within bamboo or reed leaves and tied with soaked stalks or colorful silky cords. 

Did you know that “Happy Dragon Boat Festival” might not be an appropriate greeting, even though it sounds quite natural? (This is because of the solemn commemorative and evil-suppressing aspects of the day.)

Chovyting machinery wishing everyone “Safe and Healthy Dragon Boat Festival”