Dragon Boat Festival

English

Etymology

Calque of Chinese 龍船節／龙船节 (Lóngchuánjié) or 龍舟節／龙舟节 (Lóngzhōujié), an alternative name for 端午節／端午节 (Duānwǔjié) from the races traditionally held on that day in southern China, now popularly connected with the legend of townspeople racing to throw zongzi into the Miluo River to preserve the body of the Chu poet and statesman Qu Yuan.

Proper noun

Dragon Boat Festival

  1. A Chinese holiday on Duanwu, the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar
    • 1977 June 19, T. K. Yang, “Dragon Boat Festival Honors famed statesman-poet”, in Free China Weekly‎, volume XVIII, number 24, Taipei, page 2:
      Behind the Dragon Boat Festival is the tragically heroic story of a famous Chinese poet and statesman of ancient times, Chu Yuan, who ended his life by jumping into a river. His reason: he was not able to save his country, which he saw heading toward destruction.
    • 1988, Lyman P. Van Slyke, Yangtze: Nature, History and the River‎, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 137:
      In the folk tradition, rites, festivals, and myths began an early accretion around an apotheosized Ch'ü Yuan. The most famous of these, the Dragon Boat Festival (Tuan-wu chieh), takes place on the summer solstice, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, ostensibly to search for Ch'ü Yuan's body.

Synonyms
  • Double Fifth, Double Fifth Festival
  • Duanwu, Duanwu Festival
  • Tuen Ng Festival (Hong Kong)

Translations

See also
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.