| Description |
Beginning on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, people of several ethnic groups throughout China and the world celebrate the Dragon Boat festival, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The festivities vary from region to region, but they usually share several features. A memorial ceremony offering sacrifices to a local hero is combined with sporting events such as dragon races, dragon boating and willow shooting; feasts of rice dumplings, eggs and ruby sulphur wine; and folk entertainments including opera, song and unicorn dances. |
| Social and cultural significance |
The Dragon Boat Festival is one of traditional Chinese festivals in the Mainland of China, and it is on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival originated from a custom to fend off evil spirits, and later on has evolved into an important festival with many folkways like memorial ceremonies, games, races and health care. The activities to celebrate the festival vary from place to place. The Dragon Boat Festival, which contains Chinese distinctive traditional wisdom, national spirit and cultural implications, has strong influence on Chinese people’s way of life.
The festival is a reflection of Chinese people’s cognition of solar terms, nature and cosmos. In all ages it is a special way for man to communicate with nature. Bearing people’s wisdom and romance in life as well as their wishes for blessings and peace, the festival play a very special role in constructing a harmonious society and creating a harmonious environment between man and nature.
The festival is an intangible cultural heritage with unique cultural connotations of the Chinese nation. It is also a kind of important resource to construct a harmonious society. The tales, stories, folk customs, entertainment activities and memorial ceremonies all demonstrate the national traditional cultural spirits, as well as the imagination and creativity of the Chinese people. The festival has become a non-replaceable cultural symbol of China. It helps to strengthen people’s affection for their families, communities, hometowns and their nation as well as national coherence and sense of cultural identity. |
| Transmission method |
The Dragon Boat Festival is one of traditional Chinese festivals in the Mainland of China, and it is on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It has a history of more than 2500 years. The Han nationality and some of the minorities such as Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Tujia, and Gelao and as well overseas Chinese celebrate the festival. The greatest celebrations take place in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, especially in Zigui County and Huangshi City Hubei Province, in Miluo City Hunan Province and as well, in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province. The festival spread to Korean Peninsula, Japan, Vietnam and some of Southeastern Asian countries which overseas Chinese inhabit. The festival has become a wide identification of cultural space.
The festival custom is more characteristic in Zigui County, the hometown of Qu Yuan. The people there celebrate the festival three times. On May 5th on the Chinese lunar calendar, they hand moxa and acorus calamus over the door and drink ruby sulphur wine. On May 15th on the Chinese lunar calendar people have dragon boat races and, ten days later, they send off the evil boats and have a reunion. And most important, local farmers found poetry associations to read aloud their own poems on the festival. All the activities above such as sacrificing, memorializing, dragon boat races, operas, etc., established by usage, organized by local communities, and willingly participated in by individuals, come down from generations to generations for centuries. |
| Community |
The Han nationality, some minority nationalities like Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Tujia and Gelao as well as overseas Chinese celebrate the festival. It has a great popularity here, especially in Zigui County and Huangshi City Hubei Province, and, in Miluo Hunan Province and as well in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province. |
| Type of UNESCO List |
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List |
2009 |
