The origin of Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Festival begins in central and southern China. In the Dragon Boat Race, the repaired dragon boats are decorated and beautifully, operated by Jianer, with a number of 20 to 90; they vary from place to place, not uniform.
Chinese dragon boat
The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the oldest traditional festivals in the world on the fifth day of the fifth lunar calendar (generally from late May to mid-June). Dragon Boat Festival means "fifth day", and Dragon Boat Festival is also known as Dragon Boat Festival.
The most widely celebrated story about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is the story of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) throwing himself into the river. Qu Yuan was the minister of Chu during the Warring States Period (403-211 BC) and a great poet in history, but he resolutely died in the Miro River in Yueyang City (now Henan) because he was not valued by the king of Chu. It is rumoured that when Qu Yuan was determined to throw himself into the river, his friends tried to save him, but in the end, there was nothing he could do. This story of trying to rescue Qu Yuan later evolved into a dragon boating tradition. People struggled to row the dragon boat in the river in memory of Qu Yuan's tragedy of martyrdom.
However, the tradition of dragon boat races predates Qu Yuan's story. It is generally believed that the worship of the universe's nature by the ancients is related to primitive beliefs, and the worship of the sea dragon king began with the earliest farmers on the embankment of the river. Anthropologists believe that the earliest race was a traditional ritual related to celebrations - in spring and summer, they prayed to heaven for adequate rain, away from the plague, and flooding.
Participants are either drowned in the race, or fall into the water from the boat, or are always regarded as a sacrifice to the dragon king. All these ancient traditions were combined with the later story of Qu Yuan's sacrifice into a unique legend and spread to the world.
The tradition of Dragon Boat Festival
One of the most important celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival is the dragon boat race. The hull of the dragon boat is long and narrow, with colourful wooden dragon heads and dragon tails at both ends, usually driven by 20 to 90 strong dings. There are also many various celebrations.
In some places, people will bundle banyan branches, wormwood and calamus and put them in front of their homes or gates to expel insects and avoid evil spirits. Many villagers will paste the portrait of Zhong Kui on the door of the house to help drive away the evil spirits. It is also believed that if the eggs can be erected vertically at noon on the Dragon Boat Festival, the rest of the year will be lucky.
Dragon boat race in Hong Kong
The dragon boat race held in Hong Kong every year attracts a large number of local and foreign tourists, which is an annual event in Hong Kong and the world. As early as the 1960s, foreign sources already living in Hong Kong participated in the Dragon Boat Race, celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival with the tradition of local fishermen.
Aberdeen Dragon Boat Race, Anonymous, 1990/1999, Collection of Works: Hong Kong Maritime Museum
By the 1980s, all kinds of mixed competitions were held in various regions of Hong Kong, gradually becoming the main competition system, with Stanley especially lively. The healthy children on the dragon boat are either composed of local and foreign people or men and women or all women. Hong Kong has since become a venue for this new international sports competition. On the other hand, the Tai O Dragon Boat Tour, as a traditional religious ceremony, has also become a national intangible cultural heritage project!
The current dragon boat race will have a "waking dragon" ceremony before the official competition, which is saluteed by Taoist priests or VIPs, and "sue the essence" on the dragon head, so as to give "longqi" to help win the race; and pray that he bless the prosperity of the coming year.
In theory, each dragon boat carries out the same ritual.
Information source:
Story team/participating personnel
Planning of Hong Kong Maritime Museum