Summer Solstice, this statement is made by Liu Deqian in his articles Another Explanation on Origin of Dragon Boat Festival and Interesting Remarks on Chinese Traditional Festivals. He raised three main reasons: First, the authoritative book on festivals Jingchu Festival Records does not mention the custom to eat Zongzi on May 5, but includes it for summer solstice. As to boat racing, A Treasure Under Candle by Du Taiqing in Sui dynasty classified it into amusements of summer solstice. Therefore, its origin is not that to rescue the great poet Qu Yuan. Second, some practices in Dragon Boat Festival, such as grass treading, grass fighting, and herb collecting, etc., are actually irrelevant with Qu Yuan. Third, the first explanation on Dragon Boat Festival given by Festivals and Customs Record is, “When Dragon Boat Festival comes, the sun would be in the due south, and the time would be the very middle of summer, so this festival can also be called mid-sky festival.” From this, we can conclude that the earliest origin of Dragon Boat Festival would be from summer solstice. Although there are numerous statements for the origin of Dragon Boat Festival, the most influential version is to commemorate Qu Yuan, because he has a very outstanding personality, people preferred to attribute the origin to him.
Commemorating Poetess Qiu Jin
Qiu Jin was born in Shaoxing city, Zhejiang province. When she was a little girl, Qiu Jin was good at poetry, and liked horse riding, fencing, so people nicknamed her the living Hua Mulan or Qin Liangyu. When she was 28, Qiu Jin participated in revolutionary cause, and made quite large influence. But when she was planning a revolt, she was arrested by Qing solders. On June 5, the thirty-third year of Guangxu reign, she was killed by Qing government at Xuanhengkou Shaoxing. In order to show their respects to her poem and her brave behavior, people took poet festival to commemorate her, which was formerly designated to honor Qu Yuan.
Alternative Names
According to statistics, the number of the names for Dragon Boat Festival is the most among Chinese traditional festivals, which is more than 20. Its names are mainly Dragon Boat Festival (wu means noon), Dragon Boat Festival (wu means five), Duanyang Festival, Chongwu Festival (double five), Chongwu Festival (double noon), Mid-sky Festival, Summer Festival, May Festival, Calamus Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Orchid Bathing Festival, Zongzi Festival, Noon Day Festival, Daughter’s Festival, Earth Strongest Festival, Poet Festival, etc.
Duanyang Festival
According to Jingchu Festival Records, May 5 is in middle of summer, when people would climb mountains to reach the Sun above. May 5 is the first day of Wu in mid-summer, when Yang is at its top condition, so this festival is also called Duanyang Festival.
Chongwu Festival
Wu is one of the twelve earthly branches. May in Chinese lunar calendar is the month of Wu, and it has the same pronunciation as five. On this day, there are two fives, so this festival is also called Chongwu festival (double noon or double five). In some places, it is also referred to as May Festival.
(Source: bjchinese.bjedu.cn)
