Boat races and zongzi on the fifth of the fifth month, the summer festival that remembers Qu Yuan
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, when people make, give and eat zongzi: glutinous rice with a filling, wrapped in leaves, tied and boiled, often sweet in the north and savory in the south. The festival zongzi passage in the Jingchu Suishiji falls under the summer solstice, rather than the 5th day of the 5th month; its note uses the name jiaoshu from Zhou Chu's Fengtu Ji. Wealthy Beijing households in the Yanjing Suishiji (1900) exchanged zongzi before the festival.
What
The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, when people make, give and eat zongzi: glutinous rice with a filling, wrapped in leaves, tied and boiled. Zongzi is one of the festival foods, alongside realgar wine, salted duck eggs and the Five Yellows. This entry covers the custom of eating zongzi at the festival; the dish itself has its own entry.2,3
When
The 5th day of the 5th lunar month. The festival zongzi passage in the Jingchu Suishiji (usually dated to the 6th century) falls under the summer solstice, rather than the 5th day of the 5th month. Its note uses the name jiaoshu from Zhou Chu's Fengtu Ji and includes the custom of tying 5-colored threads (changminglü) on the arm. The Western Jin date of the Fengtu Ji rests on a secondary source and is only a guide. Wealthy Beijing households in the Yanjing Suishiji (1900) exchanged zongzi with cherries and mulberries before the festival.1,2,3,5
Where
The custom is kept across China, with differences between north and south. Northern zongzi use reed leaves, often with red dates, and lean sweet; southern zongzi use bamboo leaves, often with pork or salted egg yolk, and lean savory. Both types occur across regions.2
How
Glutinous rice with a filling is wrapped in reed, bamboo or other leaves, tied with string or grass and boiled. Jiaoshu in the Jingchu Suishiji note uses bamboo tubes to wrap rice, alongside a custom of tying 5-colored threads on the arm. Zongzi in the Yanjing Suishiji (1900) are exchanged before the festival.1,2,5
Why
Tradition ties zongzi to remembering Qu Yuan, and around Suzhou to Wu Zixu. Zongzi in the Yanjing Suishiji note also connect to the Qu Yuan story. The written link between zongzi and Qu Yuan appears in the Xu Qixie Ji, 200 to 300 years after the Fengtu Ji. Mugwort and calamus are also hung on doors at the festival.2,3,5
Impact and influence
The Dragon Boat Festival joined UNESCO's Representative List in 2009. The listing covers the festival, rather than specifically recognizing the zongzi custom: its text includes rice dumplings and eggs among festival foods but does not use the word zongzi. Zongzi in the Yanjing Suishiji (1900) are gifts exchanged between Beijing households.4,5
Legend has it that the Chu poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River, and villagers threw rice in bamboo tubes into the water so that the fish would not eat his body. According to Chinese Wikipedia, the written tie between zongzi and Qu Yuan is in the Xu Qixie Ji, two to three hundred years after the records of zongzi themselves.
Told in: A folk tale told around the Miluo River in Hunan and across the country, found in the Chinese Wikipedia entries on zongzi and on the Dragon Boat Festival and in the note of the Yanjing Suishiji.
Wu Zixu and the zongzi of the Wu region
Legend has it that the body of Wu Zixu, a minister of Wu, was thrown into the river on the fifth, and people of the Wu region offered zongzi to him as a river god. The account comes from Chinese Wikipedia, which cites the Suzhou gazetteer, so it is second-hand.
Told in: A folk tale of Suzhou and the Wu region, found in Chinese Wikipedia's account of the festival, which cites the Suzhou gazetteer; the gazetteer itself was not opened.
