My Favorite Chinese Festival

There are many kinds of festivals in China, such as the Lantern Festival, which brings brightness and hope to people who light them or watch them. They eat Tangyuan every year, symbolizing unity. People have festivals to remember ancestors, bring cultural pride, reunite with family, and learn more about China’s past. China has so many festivals, but among all of them, it likes the dragon boat festival the most, done to remember Qu Yuan, who died for his country. People still honor him today; they eat Zongzi, too. This tradition has been going on for about two thousand years. The race is exciting and fun. 

Every festival has a legend or history beneath it. The dragon boat race, for example, Qu Yuan served as the adciser of the king, and was loyal and respected, but Zhang Yi was jealous of him and told the king bad things about him. The king was so furious that he exiled Qu Yuan. Without him, the king started to make bad choices and fell in battle. Qu Yuan was so grief-stricken that he jumped into the river. People respected him and played the dragon boat race and ate Zongzi to honor him. That’s what I like about the dragon boat race: it has a deep and honored meaning. 

There are certain ways to celebrate a traditional festival. In the loong boat race, people make fragrant bags(香包) and wear them because they think that this month is an unlucky month and will cause illness. Wearing the fragrant bags willfend off illness and evil. They also wear the five color silk threads to fend illness and evil. They race dragons to see who cooperates the best. They have the dragon dance, too. People make dragons with sticks under them. Then, they hold the sticks to control their body. They do actions that real dragons might do. There is a specific food at this festival: Zongzi. People make it using bamboo leaves, creating a rectangular shape, and putting any ingredients they want. 

Our school celebrates the dragon boat race too. Our parents make long dragons with sticks under their bellies for us to hold and control the dragon. We dance and race with other grades who make dragons, too. We make fragrant bags for ourselves, it’s fun. After that, the seventh and eighth grades play tug the war, the left side wins every year because the right side’s floor is more wet and slippery. After that, the school prepared mugwort water for us to splash at each other, but since there are so many of us and so little water, the water fight lasted only minutes.

In conclusion, my favorite festival in China is the dragon boat race, which is played to remember Qu Yuan, who died for his country when his king died in the battle with Qin. The month of the Loong Boat Race is known as an unlucky month, so to fend off evil and illness, people make fragrant bags to scare away bugs and insects. People also race dragon boats and eat Zongzi to honor our ancestors, it is a day for unity, hope, and sacrifice. Our school celebrates just the same too, we play the dragon dance, water fight, and tug the war, we make fragrant bags and remember Qu Yuan.