The Beautiful Meaning and Symbol of Dragon Boat Festival

The beautiful moral of the Dragon Boat Festival is to pray for blessings, symbolizing the love for nature.

The Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year. At this time, the climate turns hot and insects and ants are active, so people eat insects every Dragon Boat Festival. Dragon Boat Festival also has the following beautiful meanings and symbols. Pray for peace, exorcise evil spirits and eliminate disasters, worship nature and so on. Every festival has its own unique customs and significance. For example, during the Dragon Boat Festival, children will race dragon boats, eat zongzi, collect herbs, have lunch, wash herbs, protect kites, wind colorful ropes, wear sachets and so on.

To a great extent, these practices reflect the significance and symbols of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as praying for peace, exorcising evil spirits and eliminating disasters, and worshiping nature. Totem sacrifice held by ancient tribes who worshipped dragon totem was a festival created by ancestors to worship dragon ancestors and pray for evil spirits. During the Warring States Period, the patriotic poet Qu Yuan committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo River with a boulder on the Dragon Boat Festival, and later took the Dragon Boat Festival as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan.

The origin of Dragon Boat Festival:

Totem sacrifice, which originated from the tribes who worshipped dragon totems in ancient times, is a festival created by ancestors to worship the ancestors of the dragon and pray for evil spirits. It covers ancient astrological culture, humanistic philosophy and other aspects, and contains profound and rich cultural connotations. Together with Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, it is called the four traditional festivals in China. During the Warring States Period, the patriotic poet Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River during the Dragon Boat Festival. Later, the Dragon Boat Festival was also considered as a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan.

The two iconic customs of the Dragon Boat Festival are eating zongzi and racing dragon boats. The origin of eating zongzi and dragon boat racing is related to Qu Yuan. After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, people rowed behind him, trying to salvage Qu Yuan's body, but without success. Therefore, in order to prevent fish and shrimp from hurting Qu Yuan's health, people put glutinous rice into the river with bamboo tubes, and then slowly developed, which became two customs: eating zongzi and racing dragon boats.