A number of interesting legends and myths are
tied in to the Dragon Boat Festival, as is the case with any other festival
of the world. A part of Chinese folklore, these mythic tales are integrally
related to the Chinese culture and popular Chinese imagination. Go through
the popular legends and myth associated to the Dragon Boat Festival and click here
to let your dear ones know about these too. Celebrate "Duan Wu" with
TheHolidaySpot.
The
highly popular Chinese Dragon Boat Festival or "Duan Wu Jie" is held
on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Lunar calendar.
Traditionally, this is a time for high celebration for the Chinese
community all over the world. In China, it is a time for grand
feasts and exuberant festivities.
But this wonderful festival and its origin is believed to be wrapped
in dark legends and attended with mythical and supernatural
suggestions. The reason is not hard to seek. In Chinese belief, the
fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar is supposed to be an
inauspicious one, a month fraught with danger. As the famous boat
festival is held during this fifth month, it is natural that the
origin of the occasion is associated with dark legends and myths.
As per one such legend, the tradition of dragon boat racing began as
a way to appease the River Dragon, the Chinese God of Water. Dragons
are symbolic of good fortune in Chinese tradition and celestial
dragons were thought of in ancient days as the controllers of the
rain, the Monsoon winds and the clouds. Primitive Chinese people
viewed the dragon as the benevolent spirit of the waters. To them,
the dragon stood for the masculine principle or "yang" in the
Chinese ideology of harmony. Hence the ancient Chinese, most of whom
were involved in agriculture and highly dependent on the weather for
their livelihood, worshipped the dragon during the Summer Solstice
with requests for a balanced rainfall. The boat festival has always
been held during the same period, after the spring planting, when
people had time to relax and needed rain for their crops. The race
of the dragon-shaped boats during this festival represented a real
dragon fight in the heavens, and was meant to appease the Dragon
deity to avert misfortune and calamity and bring in rainfall to the
earth which is always necessary for the fertility of the crops and
thus ensure the prosperity of the agrarian way of life.
According to another legend, a deadly plague led the ancient Chinese
to hold boat races to pay a homage to the River Dragon so that it
would protect them from its ravages. This is also believed to be a
reason behind the origin of the custom of dragon boat racing.
However, the erudite Chinese scholar and poet Professor Wen Yiduo
(1899 – 1946) theorised that the Double Fifth celebrations were
originally held to celebrate the birthday of the dragon, which
according to a traditional Chinese belief, falls during the period
of Summer Solstice (which is also the time of observance of the
Dragon Boat Festival). He indicated that the close association of
the festival with dragon may be due to the fact that two of the most
important activities of the festival, dragon boat racing and eating
zongzi, are related to dragon.
According to another legend associated with the the Double Fifth day
and popularly believed in ancient times, a child born on this date
was to be extremely difficult to bring up, causing much grief to
his/her parents. The famous tale of Tian Wen well supports this
legend. Tian Wen was born on the Double Fifth day and hence, was
always looked at with contempt and almost ostracized. In his
lifetime, Wen had to go through several traumatic incidents that
left him emotionally scarred. Wen even survived murder attempts and
banishment by his father. But he grew up to make a name for himself
and went on to eventually become the Prime Minister of a Chinese
state. Determined that no other child should suffer the same fate as
himself, Tian Wen ordered across the state to consider the Double
Fifth day as a regular day, as auspicious as any other. He even
encouraged joyous celebrations on this day and the custom of boat
racing is thus said to have started - as a part of these
festivities. With time, the tradition became the essence of the
Double Fifth celebrations and the occasion began to be known as the
Chinese Boat Festival.
Tian Wen's noble attempts slowly bore fruit as the supposed
supernatural origins of the Double Fifth day gradually began to be
obliterated from the minds of the people, thus eliminating all
associations of it with the dark powers that was believed to hold
sway over it. For a long time, however, the fifth month of the
Chinese lunar calendar was designated as the "Evil Month" and was
believed to be the time when evil sprits ruled over unfortunate
humans.
As per one such legend, the tradition of dragon boat racing began as
a way to appease the River Dragon, the Chinese God of Water. Dragons
are symbolic of good fortune in Chinese tradition and celestial
dragons were thought of in ancient days as the controllers of the
rain, the Monsoon winds and the clouds. Primitive Chinese people
viewed the dragon as the benevolent spirit of the waters. To them,
the dragon stood for the masculine principle or "yang" in the
Chinese ideology of harmony. Hence the ancient Chinese, most of whom
were involved in agriculture and highly dependent on the weather for
their livelihood, worshipped the dragon during the Summer Solstice
with requests for a balanced rainfall. The boat festival has always
been held during the same period, after the spring planting, when
people had time to relax and needed rain for their crops. The race
of the dragon-shaped boats during this festival represented a real
dragon fight in the heavens, and was meant to appease the Dragon
deity to avert misfortune and calamity and bring in rainfall to the
earth which is always necessary for the fertility of the crops and
thus ensure the prosperity of the agrarian way of life. 
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