Dragon Boat Festival

Wednesday was Dragon Boat Festival day. It is one of the oldest holidays still celebrated in China. Some people say the Dragon Boat Festival started with the ancient worship of the River Dragon and the dragon boat races. Others believe it began in memory of one of China’s famous poets, Qu Yuan. More information about the legends can be found here, and is a pretty interesting read.

As far as I know we do not have any Dragon Boat races in Dalian, but the holiday is still observed here with the eating of machang (a rice dumpling wrapped in leaves, also called sticky rice in the west). In this part of China the people also wear multi-colored thread around their wrist(s) and/or ankles(s), and they keep them on until the next rain. In other areas they wear the threads in their hair, or around their necks to hold pendants or such. Someone here in the office told me I should wear the threads to protect myself from demons. I told them I wasn't afraid of demons, and I asked what the demons wore to protect themselves from me. They didn't know how to answer that.