By Shiao shen Yu

Shiao shen Yu writes to The Somerville Times: I am an 80 years old Chinese woman, and I like to share my Chinese culture with others. I have been in Canada and the United States since I was 26. Before I came to Cambridge MA to be close to my daughters, I wrote columns about Chinese for Pueblo Chieftain, a daily newspaper in Colorado (1986-1994). I wrote and self-published two books: Chinese Mosaics and Two Swordmasters in 2017. They are on Amazon.com and BN.com. There are many Chinese people in Somerville and everywhere in the States. I wish, with my writings, to give the readers some glimpse of the Chinese.

The Chinese refer to the Dragon Boat Festival or Spring Festival as the Double Fifth because it falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. That date corresponded to June 5 in 1992.

It is one of the three major annual festivals among Chinese. The other two are the Lunar New Year and the Moon Festival.

A legend associated with the Dragon Boat Festival depicted the death of a famous poet-statesman, Chu Yuan. In 299 B.C. Chu Yuan was an incorruptible minister who drowned himself in the Milo River of present-day Hunan province, south of the Yangtze River. His contemporary ordinary people respected him for his loyalty and integrity. On hearing of his suicide, they rushed out in boats to search for him. Unable to find him, they threw cooked rice into the river to feed the fish and crabs so that Chu Yuan’s body would be intact. That was the beginning of the traditional “Dragon Boat Race.”

Besides the exciting Dragon Boat races, the main feature of the traditional commemoration of the anniversary of Chu Yuan’s death, the Chinese will eat Tsung-tze cooked rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. Last week, my sister sent me some dried bamboo leaves and a bag of sweet rice (glutinous rice) so that I could cook Tsung-tze for my mother.

In Taiwan, this festival is also observed as “Poet’s Day,” since Chu Yuan was a famous poet. There are many poem writing contests as well as poem-reading parties.

With the Dragon Boat Festival, the Chinese welcome the summer and look to the dragon to ensure enough rain for a good harvest. There will be more insects spreading diseases. Children will wear Hsiang-Pao, the small and colorful perfumed sachets filled with insect repellent on this holiday. Some girls will present their hand-embroidered Hsiang-Pao (small pouch) to their boyfriends to convey feelings they are too shy to express in words.

Chinese also drink Realgar wine (a Chinese alcoholic and medicated drink) to repel the insects and be immune to the diseases from the insects’ bites.

Originally published in The Chieftain, Pueblo, CO, Sunday, May 31, 1992.