2024 Chinese Dragon Boat Festival Programme

CELEBRATING DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL IN CHINA The dragon boats are traditionally made of teak wood to various designs and sizes, which usually have brightly decorated designs with the front end shaped like open-mouthed dragons, and the back end with a scaly tail. A sacred ceremony is performed before any competition in order to ‘bring the boat to life’ by painting the eyes. The real highlight of the festival is the spectacle of fierce-looking dragon boat racing, which is both lively and vibrant. Participants train in earnest for the competition. Sitting two abreast, the paddlers, with a steersman at the back and a drummer at the front, race the elaborately decorated dragon boats to the beat of heavy drums. What do people do?

Why do people do this?

The humid and muggy conditions around Duanwu are thought to increase the risk of disease. Ancient people considered this susceptibility to disease as the effect of evil spirits, which coincided with their belief about inauspicious days. Duanwu thus became a day for collective customs to purge poison and expel plagues annually on the day of his death.