Zhang Xuanqi got up Thursday morning and fastened a small hand-made scent bag on his shirt. This kind of adornment has been a must for him on this special day every year since his childhood.

"Inside the bag is cinnabar that can keep away evils," said Zhang, a middle school student in Quwo County, Shanxi Province.

Local people take part in the dragon boat race to mark the Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 28, 2009. The Duanwu Festival falls on May 5 of Chinese lunar calendar. This year's Duanwu festival falls on Thursday.It is generally believed that the Duanwu Festival is marked to remember to Qu Yuan, one of the greatest ancient Chinese poets who drowned himself in the Miluo river to protest the corrupt court.

As Chinese celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu, which fell on Thursday this year, folk customs for this event have been reviving among both the old and young in this fast developing country. To wear small bags, usually with cinnabar, medicinal herbs or aromatic materials inside, is one of the traditions.

The festival is for people to remember Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet more than 2,000 years ago, who, according to legend, drowned himself in the Miluo River in Hunan Province to protest the then corrupt kingdom.

Residents take part in a Zongzi making competition in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 28, 2009, to celebrate the Chinese traditional Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival.

People also eat glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves, or called zongzi, to observe the festival. Legend has it that people drop zongzi into the water to feed Qu Yuan's spirit. Others say that they are meant to keep fish from feeding on Qu's body.

Various activities

On Thursday, dragon boat races were organized in many places across the country.

To mark the event, the 2009 National Dragon Boat Month and the Fourth China International Dragon Boat Tournament kicked off on the Miluo River. Ten domestic teams and an American team joined the competition.

Chinese folk artists perform lion dance to mark the Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, in Baoshan, east China's Shanghai Municipality, May 28, 2009.

"Our fishermen members have been making use of the fishing ban period from late January to September to have dragon boat race training," said Jin Fangming, coach for the team from eastern Jiangsu Province.

In southern Guangdong Province, 68-year-old farmer Yao Songjie in Yangqi Village joined a boat race with dozens of other participants .

"This is an activity we farmers love most," he said before the race began.

Chinese folk artists perform for local residents to mark the Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, in Taiyuan, capital city of north China's Shanxi Province, May 28, 2009. The Duanwu Festival falls on May 5 of Chinese lunar calendar. This year's Duanwu festival falls on Thursday.It is generally believed that the Duanwu Festival is marked to remember to Qu Yuan, one of the greatest ancient Chinese poets who drowned himself in the Miluo river to protest the corrupt court.

As part of the First Beijing Duanwu Cultural Festival that opened Thursday in Yanqing County, 220 people, all Yanqing residents, joined a competition of wrapping rice dumplings.

"The festival helps spread the traditional culture and also enriched residents' life," said Sheng Guirong, a Yanqing government public relations official.

Players on the dragon boats splash water to each other at Nan'ao of Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, May 28, 2009. A dragon boat race was held here to celebrate the Chinese traditional Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, with 12 teams attending.

Further exploration

At the end of 2007, China rescheduled its national holidays, adding three traditional Chinese festivals, including the "Tomb-Sweeping Day," "Dragon Boat Festival" and "Mid-Autumn Festival," as legal holidays. The move, in response to public calls, has been believed helpful to revive traditional culture in the modernizing nation.

"It is a proper time to restore the traditional festivals and let them go into our modernized life," said Chen Jianxian, a China Folklore Society member.

Children recite Lisao, a long poem of patriotism by Qu Yuan, the venerable patriotic poet of the Chu State in the Warring States Period (476-221 BC), during a commemorative ceremony for Qu Yuan, in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on May 28, 2009.

"To set the Dragon Boat Festival is not only an adjustment of the pace of daily life, but also serves as an important way of strengthening ethnic solidarity and promoting patriotism."

The dragon boat racing has developed into an international competition sport, he added. Dragon boat race will be a new competition at the 2010 Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

But Chen feared that like other festivals, the practical function and religious content of the Dragon Boat Festival may reduce while functions of commemoration and amusement will get big development.

Two foreign children learn making Zongzi, a cone-shaped food with glutinous rice stuffed with assorted tasty fillings wrapped in fresh bamboo or reed leaves to be cooked by steaming or boiling, as the foreign experts and their family members were invited to a gathering with their Chinese counterparts to spend a happy Duanwu, or Dragon Boat Festival, at campus of Tianjin Normal University in Tianjin, north China, May 27, 2009.

Chen Peiai, a professor of Xiamen University, said it is highly necessary to explore and spread the cultural essence of festivals.

"We should not simply regard the three newly added national festivals as ordinary ones. Rather we should pay more attention to their historical and culture values," the professor said.

Actors perform traditional dance during the opening ceremony of a culture festival in Jiaxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 26, 2009, to celebrate the Chinese traditional Duanwu Festival which falls on May 28 this year. A culture festival with the theme of Duanwu folk custom was held here from May 26 to 30 in the city.

Heritage application

China has submitted an application to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to nominate the Dragon Boat Festival as an intangible cultural heritage.

The application was submitted to the UNESCO by central China's Hubei Province on behalf of the nation, upon approval by the Ministry of Culture and the national intangible cultural heritage protection center, according to Hubei officials.

The application work began last September and the application was handed to the UNESCO in December, said Jiang Qing, director of the Hubei provincial center for protection of intangible cultural heritage.

UNESCO's evaluation process has started, Jiang said.

China's application includes four parts: the Duanwu customs in Qu Yuan's hometown in Zigui County of Hubei Province, boat race of Huangshi city in Hubei, Duanwu customs on the banks of the Miluo river in Hunan Province, and Duanwu customs in Suzhou city of Jiangsu Province.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2009)