The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, called “Duan Wu” (meaning Day of Right Mid-Day in Mandarin) marks the beginning of summer – or the longest day within the lunar calendar year.

This day is widely celebrated in Asia for various reasons: in Japan and Korea as Children’s Day and in China as “Duan Wu Jie” or Dragon Boat Festival.

The reason for its varied incarnations are the multitude of folklore and legends that surround this auspicious day and how they have intertwined to create a fusion of different events to be held on the same day.

The poet who threw himself into the river

As Duan Wu Jie draws near, you may notice that wet markets and supermarkets start selling a weird assortment of ingredients.

These include stacks of dried bamboo and reed leaves, dried chestnuts, dried shiitake mushrooms and glutinuous rice. These are the basic ingredients for Chinese rice dumplings (or Zong Zi in Mandarin).

The beginnings of the humble rice dumpling stem from a patriotic individual in ancient China during the period of the warring states.

The story starts in the country of Chu where Qu Yuan, a famous poet, a politician and a member of the royal family lived during 278 BC. The king of the country of Chu was in the midst of forming an alliance with the country of Qin.

Qu Yuan adamantly rejected the idea of an alliance and tried to persuade the king of Chu to reconsider. Unfortunately, his pleas went unheeded and he was instead banished from his own land.

In exile, he composed many poems and works that displayed his feelings towards the state of affairs.

Finally after 28 years, Qin conquered Chu as part of the drive to unify China. Qu Yuan devastated by his country’s destruction composed his last two patriotic poems on a boat then threw himself over the Mei Lo river (in modern day Hunan province) as his last stroke of defiance towards the Qin dynasty.

The peasants were touched by Qu Yuan’s patriotism; the fishermen tried to search for his body with no avail so they wrapped rice in leaves and threw them into the river to feed the fish to prevent them from eating Qu Yuan’s body.

Family affair

To this day, the Chinese continue to commemorate Qu Yuan by eating rice dumplings and throwing rice dumplings into the river. In China, Duan Wu is also celebrated as “Poet’s Day” in remembrance of the great poet.

For some families with elders, it’ll become a family affair to spend a day preparing ingredients and wrapping glutinous rice, seasoned pork, chestnuts and other ingredients into the bamboo leaf into a pyramid shape.

The dumplings are tied tight with straw into bunches of ten then boiled in a big vat of water.

These can then be stored in the fridge and heated up in the microwave or steamed as a meal or a quick snack.

Wine and herb bags

Not so much practiced in Singapore or modern day society, the beginning of summer usually marked a rise in temperature which accelerates the spread of diseases.

People took this day to wash their long hair with herbs and wear herbal bags to ward off illnesses.

Wine made from Realgar (a kind of sulphur) was drunk to clean off unhealthy germs in the body too.

Enter the dragon

Duan Wu Jie occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar (picture by Julian Cho)

As the longest day of sunlight, Duan Wu Jie has been associated with Yang energy in ancient China. In celebration the epitome of Yang, the dragon is called forth as an auspicious creature and dragon boat racing became a tradition in China.

Taoist rites are performed on the boats to “wake up the dragon” and offerings thrown in the sea to appease and gain the protection of the Dragon King who lives under the sea.

If you visit the Singapore River on this day, you will see long wooden dragon boats lined up in preparation of the annual Dragon Boat Festival celebrations and race. The Dragon Boat race consists of long wooden barges helmed by groups of rowers and a drum man to keep pace.

This tradition of holding a dragon boat race is practiced all over the world with many international competitions held at other times of the year.

* This festival occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar (6 June 2011)

* Main picture courtesy of flickr/chooyutshing