ChelseaGoesToChina: Dragon Boat Festival

So this last weekend in China was the Dragon Boat Festival. It is an event that remembers a poet and royal adviser Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan was famous in my province of Zhejiang as he lived and died in a neighboring province of Hunan. I bought his book of poems before moving to the area. His most famous poem is Li Sao (translated to Great Sorrow) which talks about how the emperor of China exiled Qu Yuan, and the poet fell into a depression that lead him to commit suicide by jumping in a river. People tried to row their boats out to save him but were too late. To prevent the fish from eating Qu Yuan they threw rice dumplings (called zongzi) into the river.

Here is Qu Yuan surronded by zongzi mascots.

Now the sad event is commemorated each year with people having boat races with dragons on the front. Dragons are actually considered water spirits in Asian countries compared to fire breathing creatures like they are in Western countries and are supposed to bring luck. (See my post on Japan) People also eat zongzi, wear mosquito "perfume" bags, and some areas place mugwort plants above their doors. The event is also held on the summer solstice, so the date of the event changes every year (Fercility).

A cardboard cut-out of a dragon boat in my grocery store.

Jiaxing has a three day festival so we got Monday off of work. On Saturday, my friend Evelyn and her boyfriend, Sunny, and I went to see the dragon boat races in Nanhu (translated to South Lake). Evelyn told me that in Taiwan the festival is different as the boats try grabbing flags that are placed in the water, but in our area they see who crosses the finish line first.

Afterwards, we went to the Nanhu park and went through a museum, bought perfume bags, went inside a pagoda, and ate zongzi.

The pagoda that we climbed all seven flights of stairs for.

Baking pans with imprints on them so cakes have designs on them.

A very large flag.

Horse lanterns

Then on Monday my co-worker, Tracy, invited me to her family's house to eat lunch and watch Parent Trap with her kids (one of whom is my student). They asked me what I liked to eat and I told them I like pork and fried dumplings. Those super kind people made me those dishes and guess what, they are VEGETARIAN! So they made me pork just for me which is like...the nicest thing ever??

We also played UNO (I'm glad it is international) and after we ate we went to Nanhu again for another round of boat races but it was a little different. This time the boats didn't have dragon heads on them which disappointed the kids and it was super hot. The Tracy family went home after the races and I went to Yue He (translated to Moon River).

In Yue He I went to a few shops and bought a bayberry flavored tea. The shops in the area are kind of tourist-y where they sell beads, wood swords, a TON of jade, and a lot of items with the Chinese zodiac animals. While I was in Yue He I saw a pig, just hanging out! A bunch of people were taking pictures in front of the pig, and I even snapped a picture.