Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 duānwǔjié

端午节, literally means “Double Fifth Festival”, is a Chinese festival celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month based on Chinese calendar.  端午节 is celebrated to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan in 287BC. Qu Yuan is a respected Chinese poet who drown himself out of sadness when his country lost to a conqueror’s hand.   端午节 is also often called Dragon Boat Festival since Chinese communities in many countries have Dragon Boat races to celebrate.

During 端午节 celebration, people will prepare and eat rice dumpling (zongzi) and drink wine. Zongzi is a traditional Chinese food made of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves.  It is often stuffed with meat and vegetable fillings.  According to folklore stories, zongzi was originally made and thrown to river to prevent fish from eating the body of Qu Yuan.  Visit here to download Powerpoint all about this special holiday.

Dragon Boat Racing in Long Beach, CA 

Long Beach Dragon Boat Festival is an annual event in Long Beach.  In addition to hosting one of the largest dragon boat competitions in California, there will be Chinese traditional art demonstrations, Chinese Acrobats, traditional dance, hip hop, music and martial arts performances.

During this lesson, students learned to draw a dragon boat.  Some students even added people inside the dragon boats.  Here are some great pictures of the kids working!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Look what we painted!