Duanwu Festival 2022

Duanwu Festival, also known as Dragon Boat Festival, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. With a history of more than 2,000 years, it is an important traditional Chinese festival. The festival is full of customs activities, including making zongzi, holding dragon boat races, hanging mugwort leaves and calamus, drinking reaglar wine, and wearing perfume pouches. It falls on June 3rd this year. The holiday goes from June 3rd to June 5th.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival in China to commemorate the death of ancient Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC). Qu drowned himself in the Miluo River, located in today’s Yueyang City, Hunan Province, to protest corruption in his kingdom.

Craftsmen prepare a dragon boat in Miluo, Hunan province. [Photo by Deng Shugang/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A variety of activities will be held across Yueyang City to observe the festival.

Dongting Lake Town
Duration: June 3-5
Activities: Duanwu-themed parent-kid events; children’s program performances; parent-kid sports meeting; and parent-kid zongzi making.

Yueyang Tower
Date: June 3
Activities: 30-yuan ticket will be offered; free tickets will be offered to those who have recited the article “Records of the Yueyang Tower”.

Yueyang Tower (Photo courtesy of the Yueyang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio, and Television)

Shiniuzhai Scenic Area in Pingjiang County
Duration: June 1-5
Activities: contests of making zongzi in five minutes

Photo courtesy of Shiniuzhai Scenic Area

Mufu Mountain Scenic Area
Duration: June 1-5
Activities: buying a cableway ticket and sharing a post as required to get an admission ticket for free; getting a set of five-color strings and blessing ribbons at the check-in of cableway station; Jungle Adventure Park will offer free dryland boat races to tourists.

Photo courtesy of Mufu Mountain

Yangsha Lake Scenic Area
Duration: June 1-12
Activities: getting a free admission to the scenic area by sharing a designated post for two consecutive days; getting a souvenir at the ticket office of the Yangsha Lake Wetland Park by showing repost records.

Miluo City
Duration: June 1-2
Activities: Miluo “Our Festival—Duanwu” serial events; 11 teams compete in 36-member traditional dragon boat races held on the Miluo River.

Translator: Xiao Juan
Chinese source: Voice of Hunan