The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most spectacular traditions of acient China. It is an exciting period of for rowing competitions marked by the eating of rice dumplings called "Ma Chang". In some Chinese-speaking societies, the day is also known as the "Poets' Day".
About 2300 years ago, during the Warring States period, a well-respected poet and statesmen named "Qu Yua n" lived in the Chinese Kingdom of Chu and served the government with intergrity as Minister of State. He was disturbed by the corruption and by the court intrigues of many countries who resented his talent, popularity, and sense of righteousness. Because of that, other officials convinced the Emperor that Qu Yuan was corrupt, that his plea for reforms be ignored and had him banished from the Kingdom.
For years, he wandered the countryside composing poems expressing his patriotism and love for the people. Either as an act of despair or an ultimate protest against the corrupt government, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Mei Lo river on the fifth day of the fifth month in the year 278 B.C. Qu Yuan opted to commit suicide rather than lose face and honour by serving a corrupt government.
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He composed two famous poems known as "Ai Ying" and "Huai Sha" before jumping into the river with a large stone tied to himself. Grief-stricken local fishermen who witnessed Qu Yuan's desperate act, tried to save the patriotic poet. Thy sailed up and down the river to look for him and desperately thrashed the water with their oars and paddles to scare off the hungry fishes which might eat his body. To commemorate the patriotic man, the fishermen and rural town folks threw cooked rice dumpling wrapped in silk or banana leaves, into the water in order to appease the spirits of the river on his death anniversary. These rice dumplings are called "Tsung Tze" or "Ma Chang". |
