Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong 2023!
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Tuen Ng Festival (端午節), is on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year, 22nd June in 2023.
It is sad to say that this festival is originated from a tragedy 2,000 years ago which commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a Chinese national hero at that time. Because he was disappointed with the corrupt rulers, Qu drowned himself in the Mi Lo River.
The townspeople were shocked when knowing this tragedy, but they failed to find Qu's body. They wanted to protect his body with honour. In order to scare away fish from eating his body, the townspeople beat drums and threw glutinous rice dumplings called "zongzi" into the water. Nowadays, this event is remembered by Chinese people worldwide. Eating zongzi, swimming or doing Dragon Boat races in rivers or lakes become the tradition of this festival.
Please check our vlog video of how dragon boat paddlers are trained: