Dragon boat racing held in China to celebrate festival
Villagers attend a dragon boats race in Daoxian county, Hunan province on June 13. Over a hundred dragon boats race to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival which falls on Wednesday.
Competitors take part in a dragon boat race in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province, June 13, 2010, to mark the coming Dragon Boat Festival.
Competitors take part in a dragon boat race in Zigui county, central China’s Hubei province, June 15, 2010, a day before the Duanwu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival). Zigui is the hometown of Quyuan.
Competitors take part in a dragon boat race in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province, June 13, 2010, to mark the coming Dragon Boat Festival.
Competitors take part in a dragon boat race in Daoxian County, central China’s Hunan province on June 13, 2010.
A competitor prepares to attend a dragon boat race in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, June 14, 2010.
The event was held originally to honor the Chinese poet Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC-278 BC) of the Warring States Period.
Qu Yuan was a minister in the government of the state of Chu, descended of nobility and a champion of political loyalty and truth eager to maintain the Chu state’s sovereignty.
He committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he was disgusted by the corruption of the Chu government.
The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so they would not eat Qu Yuan’s body.
They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats, and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce looking carved dragon head on the boat’s prow.
SOURCE: China Daily
Editorial Message
This site contains materials from other clearly stated media sources for the purpose of discussion stimulation and content enrichment among our members only.
whatsonsanya.com does not necessarily endorse their views or the accuracy of their content. For copyright infringement issues please contact editor@whatsonsanya.com