Dragon Boat Festival links modern China to traditions more than 2,000 years old

Dragon boat races, lion dances and other festivities marked the Dragon Boat Festival on Friday across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The more than 2,000-year-old holiday is best known for its sporting events, but its origins are rooted in ancient beliefs about health, protection and harmony with nature.

“The fact that this holiday has been preserved for thousands of years shows how much we value our traditional customs,” said Meng Dongmei, a retired resident of Beijing’s Tongzhou district.

Ms Meng said her family observes the holiday through a variety of traditional customs. They prepare zongzi, the sticky rice dumplings associated with the festival, and children wear five-coloured bracelets believed to ward off evil.

“We also learned online about a traditional recipe using mugwort leaves, red dates, brown sugar and ginger to boil eggs,” Ms Meng said.

“We heard that it could help ward off illness and keep people healthy throughout the year, so we hope that through this festival our family will enjoy good health.”

Beijing’s 2026 celebrations will continue through the weekend at the capital’s Grand Canal.

The three-day event features men’s, women’s and mixed dragon boat races over distances of 100, 200 and 500 metres. Teams from Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Guangdong will compete throughout the holiday weekend.

More than 1,000 athletes and 200,000 spectators are expected to gather for the event, organisers said in a press release.

“The competition helped strengthen our team spirit,” said Li Maoshan, a participant in Friday’s races.

“It also gave us an opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of perseverance and hard work.”

Among the cultural features during Beijing’s Dragon Boat Festival were demonstrations of Wing Chun martial arts, a market featuring traditional handicrafts and a performance in which dancers mimic the movements of a lion.

Activities were intended to highlight cultural exchanges between northern and southern China, officials said.

Friday’s lion dance was presented by a group of performers from Guangdong province in southern China.

“Wherever there is a festive occasion, you’ll find dragon and lion dances,” said He Weihong, founder of the group.

“Dragon boat racing and dragon-and-lion dancing are inseparable, as they are both part of our intangible cultural heritage.”

The festival’s roots run deeper than sporting competitions. It is widely associated with the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who according to legend drowned himself more than 2,000 years ago.

Tradition holds that people raced out in boats to search for him and threw rice into the river so fish would not eat his body.

That story is often linked to both today’s dragon boat races and the zongzi still prepared by families across China.

“The Dragon Boat Festival is probably the richest and most diverse of all traditional Chinese festivals,” said Tsinghua University’s history professor Liu Xiaofeng.

“Across different regions, people developed a wide variety of traditions based on ideas connected to the summer solstice and the balance of yin and yang.”

The holiday falls in the fifth month of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, around the time of the summer solstice.

Ancient Chinese viewed this as a period when insects, poisonous creatures and disease became more prevalent, giving rise to a wide range of customs aimed at preserving health and warding off misfortune.

“At its core, the Dragon Boat Festival is about disease prevention, warding off evil and maintaining health,” Mr Liu said.

Some people wear sachets containing medicinal herbs during the festival. Others fumigate their homes with smoke, a practice intended to prevent disease by driving out things considered harmful.

“Chinese people have traditionally placed a special emphasis on happiness, well-being and living in peace and safety,” Mr Liu said.

“Nearly all of China’s major festivals are connected in some way to these aspirations.”