Dragon Boat racing is part of the Chinese Culture. Every year on the fifth
day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar, people celebrate the Duan Yang
(High Noon) Festival. It is a fertility festival in which people ask for rain and a good harvest. During the festival, Dragon Boat races are organized.
The High Noon Festival is the most important festival after the New Year. In the Hunan province of China, Dragon Boats are kept in nearby temples. A couple of days before the festival, the boats are ceremonially pulled out of their storage and a Dragon Head and Tail are mounted. Offerings are made to the spirits before the boats are put into the water. The dragon is ritually awakened. A Taotic priest blesses the boat and colours the eyes of the Dragon Head as the Dragon awakens.
The Dragon Boat race derives from the death of Qu Yuan, a poet-philosopher who committed suicide by jumping into the Mei Lo River to protest the corrupt regime of a Chou emperor. According to legend, local fishermen, upon seeing their beloved poet's act of courage, raced out in their boats in an attempt to save his life. They arrived too late, but to prevent the fish from eating his body they beat the water furiously with their paddles and threw rice dumplings wrapped in silk into the river to distract the fish. A re-enactment of this legend is conducted at Dragon Boat racing events.
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