The Dragon Boat Festival
is a traditional Chinese festival held on the fifth day of the fifth
month of the Chinese lunar calendar (varying from late May to June
on the modern Gregorian calendar). Commonly known as “Duan Wu” in
Chinese, this unique occasion is grandly celebrated everywhere in
China and also observed in various other parts of East Asia as
"Double Fifth Day". In the West, it is popularly known as “Dragon
Boat Festival” and is typically celebrated during the summer months
with dragon boat races and competitions being the focus of the
activities.
 The Dragon Boat race is the most important custom of "Duan Wu" and
an inseparable part of the festival. The boat racing used to be an
ancient outdoor sport in China where dragon-shaped boats took part
in the races, symbolizing a real dragon fight in the heavens, to
bring heavy rains. The festival was held after the spring planting,
when people had time to relax and needed rain for their crops. The
tradition continues to this day with an annual regatta being
organized that sees the participation of long, narrow boats shaped
and painted like dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to
a drumbeat racing to reach the finishing line first.
The 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar year is an important day
for the Chinese people. This is around the period of Summer
Solstice, believed to be that time of the year when the sun and the
dragon are at their most potent phase. Hence, the “Duan Wu” is held
during this time with the observance of ritual celebrations such as
dragon boat racing. It is also the time of farming year when rice
seedlings must be transplanted in their paddy fields, for wet rice
cultivation to take place.
In modern era, the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated wherever there
is a presence of the Chinese community. The Dragon Boat Racing has
evolved into a popular international sport. In Singapore, the
festival is a noted tourist event and competitors from Asia as also
of other parts of the world enter the annual race. Fundraising and
community work are also associated to this wonderful event.
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