Tuen Ng Festival & Dragon Boat Races

A dragon head at the bow of a dragon boat

Last Monday was a quiet day here: it was Memorial Day in the U.S. and the Spring Bank Holiday in the U.K.  The resulting lack of activity in our inboxes made for a slow day, and we felt like we'd missed out on the traditional start to summer.  This weekend we got our 'start of summer' fix -- a three day weekend with the Tuen Ng or Dragon Boat Festival.

Tuen Ng is a public holiday in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.  Despite its Chinese origins, it wasn't a public holiday in the People's Republic of China until 2008.  It is also celebrated in Chinese communities throughout southeast Asia.  Like a number of other Chinese holidays, the day Tuen Ng is celebrated is based on the lunar calendar, so the day it is recognized on the modern calendar changes each year.  Officially, it is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, so in some places it is also referred to as the Double Fifth Festival.  The traditional way of celebrating Tuen Ng is by eating rice treats wrapped in bamboo leaves (called zongzi), drinking a traditional Chinese medicinal wine (called realgar) and by racing Dragon Boats.

A dragon boat team heads out to the starting line

There is some debate about the origin of the holiday, but the most widely accepted version of the story centers around a poet and government official named Qu Yuan who lived between 343 and 278 B.C.  As a minster for the kingdom of Chu, Qu Yuan developed a reputation as an advocate for alliances between various kingdoms in ancient China.  However, rival corrupt functionaries slandered him, causing the King of Chu to send him into exile, where he spent his time writing poetry and falling into a deep depression.  As a means of protesting the corruption as well as the collapse of his kingdom, Qu Yuan committed ritual suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River in what is now Hunan Province.  Qu Yuan's admirers are said to have tried to save him by racing out into the river in their boats, splashing the water with paddles and beating their drums.  This is said to be the origin of the Dragon Boat races.  When they were not successful at saving him or even finding his body, Qu Yuan's admirers dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that they fish would eat that instead of Qu Yuan's body.  This is the origin of the zongzi traditionally eaten during Tuen Ng.

A dragon boat team competes for the costume prize

In Hong Kong, the celebrations of  Tuen Ng are centered around Dragon Boat races.  Dragon Boats are long, canoe-shaped boats decorated with Chinese dragon heads and tails and powered entirely by a crew of twenty paddlers.  The crew is completed with a drummer in the bow of the boat and a crew member steering with a rudder at the stern.  The races are held on large and small scales in waterfront communities.  We ventured to the village of  Stanley, on the south side of Hong Kong Island, to see the races there.  The Stanley races are among the largest in Hong Kong, with around two hundred local and international teams, most sponsored by big companies.  We saw primarily sprint races in a variety of classes (men's, women's, mixed teams).  Winning teams are awarded trophies, and there is also a prize for the best team costume.

This was a unique way for us to mark the beginning of summer.  We enjoyed spending a warm and steamy morning seeing a modern-day take on a tradition with ancient roots.  The crowds at the event confirmed that Tuen Ng Festival is one of the most popular of the year.