The Duan Wu, or Dragon Boat festival, is one of the oldest and most popular traditional Chinese festivals. Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, this year it falls on June 20.
The festival dates back over 2,000 years to the Warring State Period (475–221 B.C.). The tradition is derived from the tragic story of Qu Yuan, a poet and statesman who lived in the fourth and third centuries before Christ.
Qu Yuan was a court minister for King Huai of the state of Chu. Seeing the danger his state faced from the neighbor empire of Qin, Qu begged his king to form an alliance with the other five Chinese states to keep the threat at bay.
Though a patriotic and loyal official, Qu Yuan’s upright character and wisdom made others envious. Jealous ministers defamed him and pressured the king of Chu to banish Qu to what is now Hunan Province in central-southern China.
Later, when the Chu capital was taken by the Qin invaders, Qu Yuan was so grief-stricken that he threw himself into Dongting Lake. His legacy of patriotism won the respect of generations to come, and the Dragon Boat Festival was created to commemorate the life and death of this noble man.
