Dragon Boat Festival

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Dragon Boat Festival

• Customs and Culture
• By ChildBook.com

Teachers Resource from www.childbook.com
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• Qu Yuan gave advice on how to keep the peace to
  his king during the warring states period (same
  period that Sun Tzu wrote the Art of War) over
  2000 years ago.
• Unfortunately, he was ignored by his King and
  became very sad as other officials slandered
  him. 
• He was removed from office and became very sad as
  he was banished. 
• He drowned himself on the fifth day of the fifth
  month on hearing that his country had been
  conquered after he wrote the famous poem, "Li Sao
  (On encountering Sorrow)". 
• People raced their boats to save him and beat
  their drums. 
• To stop the fish and river dragon from eating
  him, they beat the water with their paddles.  But
  this did not work.  
• So after giving up, the villagers tossed rice
  into the river to make sure that Qu's spirit
  would be well fed and the fish would not eat his
  body.
•  

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The water dragon rules the rivers, seas, rain,
and direction of the compass.  Offerings are
made during harvest to make sure the rains
happen. In legend, Qu Yuan's spirit 200 years
after his death visited some local fishermen
telling them that the rice intended for him was
being eaten by the fish and by the river dragon. 
In order to stop this, they should wrap the
write in a bamboo leaves and tie it with threads
in the imperials colors of red, blue, white,
yellow, and black.  The combination of the 5
colors would create an amulet so the rice would
go to Qu Yuan, as intended.
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The local people ran to the banks of the river
and beat drums to scare away the fish from eating
his body. 
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Zhong Kui is known as the demon killer and his
picture is put up in houses to scare evil spirits
away.  His picture is put on the front door,
since the Fifth Moon, or double fifth is
considered the most unlucky day of the Chinese
Year.  Similar to Friday the 13th.  Traditionally
this time of year was hot and humid which
brought many diseases. Zhong Kui committed
suicide since he was unjustly prevented from
becoming an advisor to the emperor. Since the
emperor gave him a funeral fit for royalty, he
swore to protect the emperor and make the world
safe from ghosts and demons. 
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Dragon Boats are painted traditionally green,
red, and yellow.  Dragons are powerful of full
of good luck, so the Dragon boat races spread
good luck.  Each team races on a fifty foot
long teak or fiberglass dragon boat. 
Traditionally, the eyes are decorated last, and
this is done by a Taoist Priest to awaken the
boat
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Dragon Boat races are held on rivers, lakes,
channels, and bays across the world.  If there
is any movement of paddles once they are put in
the water before the start of the race, the team
is disqualified.
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Dragon Boat festivals are held from February
through October.  There are over forty Dragon
Boat Festivals in the US and Canada, with the
largest in Vancouver and Toronto.  Each boat
usually 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a steer
person.  The drummer is the heart of the
Dragon.  The course is 500 to 1300 Meters long.
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The winning team will grab a flag at the end of
the race.
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People gave offering of rice to feed his spirit
and make sure that the fish would never feed on
his body.  To make sure that other animals
don't eat the rice, they wrap it in a reed and to
scare the animals, tied it with bright imperial
colors (red, blue, white, yellow, and black). 
In another story there is a hungry dragon that
is eating all the rice, so the bright colors
scare the dragon away.  The wrapped stick rice
is called joong and you can buy it from Chinese
bakeries or order it at a Dim Sum
restaurant. Perfumed pouches are also tied
around childrens necks to keep away the bad
spirits and therefore, avoid illness.
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Dragon Boat Information

• Dragon Boat Racing Event Calendar
• Dragon Boat Festival Race Event Calendar for
  North America for 2009.  The Dragon Boat Festival
  is the 2nd most important festival for Chinese,
  after the Lunar New Year.
• Dragon Boat Festival Background, Customs, and
  History
• Dragon Boat Festival Coloring Pages
• Dragon Boat Festival Lesson Plan
• Dragon Boat Festival Worksheets!
• Available at ChildBook.com

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