The Dragon Boat Festival is one of China’s four major traditional festivals, celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. It is a grand folk festival that integrates worshiping gods and ancestors, praying for blessings and warding off evil, celebrating with entertainment, and enjoying special foods. It has more than 20 alternative names, including Duanyang Festival, Longzhou Festival, Chongwu Festival, Chongwu Festival, Tianzhong Festival, etc. It is a traditional festival for the Han, Shui, Naxi, Tibetan, Yi, Dai, Gelao, Pumi and other ethnic groups.
As a formal festival, the Dragon Boat Festival took shape during the Han Dynasty. Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded in Fengsu Tongyi (General Treatise on Customs) that people avoided military service, evil spirits, diseases and plagues on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.
The origin of the Dragon Boat Festival has had different explanations throughout history. The main versions include: commemorating Qu Yuan (the Chu minister who drowned himself in a river), welcoming the Wave God (Wu Zixu who became the Wave God after wrongful death), the Evil Day theory, the Dragon Festival theory (worship of the dragon totem), and the Summer Solstice theory. Despite various accounts, the legend of commemorating Qu Yuan is the most widely accepted among the Han people. The origins of the festival involve ancient star culture, humanities and philosophy, carrying profound cultural connotations. It has integrated a variety of folk customs in its inheritance and development, with differences in practices and details across regions due to local cultural variations.
Major customs of the Dragon Boat Festival include hanging portraits of Zhong Kui, staying at home to avoid misfortune, posting leaf charms, hanging calamus and wormwood, walking to ward off diseases, wearing sachets, preparing sacrificial offerings, racing dragon boats, martial arts competitions, ball games, swinging, applying realgar wine, drinking realgar wine and calamus wine, eating Five Poisons cakes, salted eggs, zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings) and seasonal fresh fruits. While activities with superstitious elements have gradually faded, most customs have spread across China and to neighboring countries.
In May 2006, the State Council included the Dragon Boat Festival in the first batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Since 2008, it has been designated as a national statutory holiday. In September 2009, UNESCO officially approved its inclusion in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making the Dragon Boat Festival China’s first festival to be inscribed on the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List.