Duan Wu Jie - the holiday of the double five

Event Date

-

Duan Wu Jie is one of the three most important traditional festivals in China. This day is also called the holiday of the double five, the holiday of Duan-yang, the day of the poet. The holiday is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar.

According to the most common opinion, the emergence of this holiday is associated with the memory of the ancient Chinese poet-patriot Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan lived in the kingdom of Chu in the era of the Warring States (5-3 centuries BC). Many times he appealed to the local emperor with proposals for reforms against political degradation, decay and corruption. But the king, believing the denunciations of dignitaries who deliberately slandered Qu Yuan, expelled the poet from the capital. In 278 BC, the troops of the kingdom of Qin seized the capital of the kingdom of Chu. Upon learning about such a national disgrace, Qu Yuan could not bear it and on the fifth day of the fifth month he committed suicide by throwing himself into the river. According to the legend, having learned about his death, people in grief and horror rushed into the boats and searched for a long time the body of the poet in the river, but were never found.

Subsequently, every year on the day of the poet’s death, people in his memory began to arrange boat races in the form of dragons on the rivers. That is why this festival is sometimes called the Dragon Boat Festival.

At the same time, for Qu Yuan, they were throwing bamboo sticks filled with boiled rice into the river. But once, as legend has it, they met Qu Yuan himself on the shore and said: “All the rice you give me is eaten by a dragon. Wrap rice in reed leaves and tie it with colored thread, because the dragon is most afraid of these two things. ”

This is how the traditional food of this holiday appeared - zongzi (zongzi) - sticky rice wrapped in cane leaves.

Currently, Duan Wu Jie is a public holiday - the weekend lasts three days, starting from the day of the holiday.