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Happy Dragon Boat Day
Today is one of my favorite Chinese holidays. It’s Dragon Boat Day! I had the day off work, so I went to brunch with some coworkers and bought new work shoes. It was a good day to relax.
But there’s more to this holiday than discounted shopping and an extra day off work. It’s not because of the crazy name. There really is a dragon-boat involved. But there’s a lot of other things that happen on this day too.
The Story
In ancient times, there was a poet named Qu Yuan. He lived in the Chu kingdom and was a statesman. He was loyal to the King of Chu and gave him lots of advice. The other court officials didn’t like that much, so they started telling the king that he was conspiring against him. So Qu Yuan was exiled.
Qu Yuan was heartbroken. He constantly wrote poems about how angry he was. Then one day, he attached a giant rock on his chest and jumped into Miluo River, drowning himself. People tried to save him, but no one could find his body. Years afterward, people began throwing rice in the river so the fish wouldn’t eat his body, and he could get some of the rice in the afterlife.
While this has been the tradition for thousands of years, it didn’t officially become a public holiday until 2008. From then on, it was a day off for schools and some businesses.
