Zongzi: Rice dumpling with red bean filling

The Dragon Boat Festival, Duanwu Festival or Duen Ng Festival is a traditional Chinese festival held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar (19/June/07 & 08/June/08). It is also known as the Double Fifth. It has since been celebrated in other parts of East Asia as well. In the West, it is commonly known as Dragon Boat Festival and is typically celebrated during the summer months with dragon boat races and competitions being the focus of the activities. Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Simplified Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: or ; traditional Chinese: or ; pinyin: or ) is one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. ... Map of eastern China and Taiwan, showing the historic distribution of Mandarin Chinese in light brown. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Min (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; POJ: Bân hong-giân; BUC: Mìng huŏng-ngiòng) is a general term for a group of dialects of the Chinese language spoken in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this province in Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou... Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This article is about all of the Cantonese (Yue) dialects. ... Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ... Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Simplified Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: or ; traditional Chinese: or ; pinyin: or ) is one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. ... Map of eastern China and Taiwan, showing the historic distribution of Mandarin Chinese in light brown. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Min (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; POJ: Bân hong-giân; BUC: Mìng huŏng-ngiòng) is a general term for a group of dialects of the Chinese language spoken in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this province in Guangdong (around Chaozhou-Swatou... Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This article is about all of the Cantonese (Yue) dialects. ... Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ... Download high resolution version (1024x768, 125 KB)Rice Dumpling Zongzi; Taken March 10, 2005 by Allen Timothy Chang File links The following pages link to this file: Zongzi Categories: GFDL images ... Download high resolution version (1024x768, 125 KB)Rice Dumpling Zongzi; Taken March 10, 2005 by Allen Timothy Chang File links The following pages link to this file: Zongzi Categories: GFDL images ... Zong Traditional Chinese: Simplified Chinese: Zong, zongzi, or Chinese rice dumplings are a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. ... Chinese culture has roots going back over five thousand years. ... For other uses, see Festival (disambiguation). ... The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. ... Duanwu or Tango (Chinese and Japanese: 端午; Korean: ; Vietnamese: ) is the fifth day of month 5 in East Asia lunisolar calendars. ... This article is about the geographical region. ... A Dragon boat (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a very long and narrow human powered boat used in the team paddling sport or Dragon boat racing which originated in China. ... A Dragon boat (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a very long and narrow human powered boat used in the team paddling sport or Dragon boat racing which originated in China. ...

History

The Dwueen Ng Festival originated in ancient China. One traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the high official LolWut Yuen or Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC-278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu (Warring States Period). LolWut Yuen committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he found out that Chu had lost a vital battle. The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Chu's body. They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats, and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and killed his mother, because the people loved him so much, they raced out to recover his body, and the races signify the boats skimming across the water to find him. However, research has also revealed that the festival is also a celebration that is characteristic of ancient Chinese agrarian society: the celebration of the harvest of winter wheat, because similar celebrations had long existed in many other parts of China where Qu Yuan was not known. As interactions between Chinese residing in different regions increased, these similar festivals were eventually merged. Qu Yuan (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (ca. ... State of Chu (small seal script, 220 BC) Chu (楚) was a kingdom in what is now southern China during the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 BCE) and Warring States Period (481-212 BCE). ... Warring States redirects here. ... A Dragon boat (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a very long and narrow human powered boat used in the team paddling sport or Dragon boat racing which originated in China. ... Winter wheat is a cereal. ... Qu Yuan (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (ca. ...

In the early years of the Republic of China, Duen Ng was also celebrated as "Poets' Day," due to Qu Yuen's status as China's first player of personal pimp-ness. For the Chinese civilization, see China. ...

Today, people eat bamboo-wrapped steamed rice dumplings called zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fish) and race dragon boats in memory of LolWut Yuen's death. Zong Traditional Chinese: Simplified Chinese: Zong, zongzi, or Chinese rice dumplings are a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. ...

External links

• Dragon Boat Net, about the dragon boat sport and it's tradition
• More pictures on Hong Kong official tourism website about Dragon Boat Festival
• More pictures of Dragon Boat Festival
• Dragon Boat World Int. - the worlds dragon boat magazine
• Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada's Dragon Boat Race - New Brunswicks Best Festival