So often, people celebrate festivals without any idea of their origins. A good example of this is the Duanwu Festival, or the Dragon Boat Festival, which starts today - the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. It is one of the three major traditional Chinese festivals, in addition to the Spring Festival (February 18 this year) and the Mid-Autumn Festival (September 25).

For thousands of years, Chinese have celebrated the festival by eating zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped with bamboo or reed leaves to form a pyramid) and racing dragon boats.

There exist at least 23 explanations of the origins of the Dragon Boat Festival, says Wu Bing'an, a well-known folk culture researcher with the National Research Institute of Chinese Arts.

The most popular theory purports that the festival came about because of Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BC), a great poet and a minister of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). It is said that the King of Chu wouldn't

The statue of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) captures the tragic air of the great poet at the Qu Yuan Memorial in his hometown of Zigui in Hubei Province.   Yang Shizhong
 
listen to his advice, so the kingdom eventually fell into the hands of the State of Qin. Having lost all hope of saving his motherland, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River near today's Yueyang, in Central China's Hunan Province.

While many experts believe the Duanwu Festival was staged in memory of this man of noble spirit, some argue otherwise. The Dragon Boat Festival began much earlier than the time of Qu Yuan, says Wen Huaisha, a renowned scholar of Chuci -- The Songs of the South which includes some Qu Yuan's works.

Later people linked the folk festival with Qu Yuan's life story and his final death for the Chu Kingdom. Then, the folk event was given more political significance," Wen says.

In ancient times, the Duanwu Festival was extremely popular in southern China, where rivers and lakes are still plentiful. Even in Beijing, large-scale dragon boat races were staged in the canals. And today, similar dragon boat races are staged in Beijing.

Between the Yuan and Qing dynasties, feudal courts regarded the dragon-boat races as occasions to pay homage to ancestors and gods.

The festival is also called the Festival of the Poets. In 1941, when the entire nation mobilized against Japanese aggressions, Guo Moruo and other influential figures of literary circles suggested that the Dragon Boat Festival be designated as the Poets' Day, because Qu Yuan was a typical patriotic figure.

As a traditional folk custom, the Duanwu Festival has been celebrated by at least 28 Chinese minorities, such as the Manchu, Mongolian and Miao. Each minority celebrates with different activities, including wrestling, horse racing, boat racing and performing galas, says Wu Bing'an.

In 1988, the central government declared the Dragon Boat Race an official sporting event.

The festival has extended its influence to at least 13 countries in Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America. In November 2005, South Korea successfully registered its Gangneung dragon boat festival - which many Chinese argue has originated from the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival - as an intangible cultural heritage with the UNESCO.

"It is important that the festival attracts the interest of contemporary Chinese," Feng Jicai, chairman of Chinese Folk Artists Association, said during a seminar on folk culture last year.

(China Daily June 19, 2007)