Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient Chinese celebration that always falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar - that's five days after the new Dragon moon of May or June. It’s the third largest festival in the Chinese calendar, and it’s considered to be the start of summer. 

On this day everyone watches the spectacular dragon boat races, with the paddlers moving their oars in one fluid motion while the drummer thumps out a rhythm. The races might have begun as a symbolic way to encourage the dragons to fight in heaven and bring rain, so farmers would have good crops. Today, the races are held everywhere from Rome to Seattle, and if you are near enough to see them - how wonderful!

The Chinese call this the Duan Wu Jie (pronounced Dwan woo-oo Jee-eh) or Highest Meridian Festival. A meridian is a high point, as in the sun at the solstice. The Chinese celebrate the solstice today, according to a lunar calendar, so it varies every year. Traditionally this day is dangerous and unhealthy because it’s so strongly yang, putting the forces of ying and yang out of balance.

2018 xiangbao sachets

Agenda:

1. A Chinese chant

2. Make a xiangbao sachet

3. Make zongzi (dumplings)

4. Throw zongzi in the water

1. A Chinese chant:

The Chinese word for the sun is tai-yang, which means “great yang”. Winter is a time of yin energy (shadows), and summer is a time of yang energy (sun).

Some Chinese people greet the sunrise with this chant:

Tai-yang, tai-yang! (tie-yawng)  = Sun or “great yang” 

Chu yin, (chew in)                     = Go away shadows

xian yang. (shin yawng)            = Now is (the time for) sun

 

2. Make a xiangbao:

The Chinese have many customs to protect against the excessive yang energy generated by the sun and moist heat at this time of year. My favorite is the xiangbao (pronounced shang-bow). 

Mothers tie these pretty sachets around the necks of children, to keep illness and bad spirits away. Xiangbao are usually silk, and they come in any imaginable shape and size, from a simple pouch, butterflies, hearts, animals- and they often have an embroidered design and a long red tassel. 

Georgia made a snail.

I made a butterfly xiangbao one year that I’m quite happy with, and my friend Georgia made a snail.

Supplies: Paper, pencil, scissors, silk scraps, fabric pencil, embroidery floss, needle, hoop, iron-on interfacing, potpourri, cord

1- Draw a pattern for the outer shape and inner designs of your sachet. What could be a symbol of summer luck? a sun, butterfly, cat... It can be quite small: Mine is 3-inches across.

2- Iron a piece of silk. Cut out the paper pattern, and trace your shape and design onto the silk with a fabric pencil. Put silk into a hoop. 

3- Decorate your sachet with embroidery stitches. (See pictures of Chinese embroidery to get an idea of the kinds of stitches to use.)

4- Cut well outside the lines of your shape, and cut a piece of interfacing a little smaller (so it doesn't stick to your iron).

Iron the two together according to the interfacing directions.

5- Do the same for a second piece of silk, for the back side of your sachet, so that you have 2 pieces of silk reinforced with interfacing.

6- Cut the two shapes out right on the guide lines. 

7- Whip stitch the two pieces together with embroidery floss, leaving a small hole at the top.

8- Fill with potpourri. 

9- Insert the ends of a long loop of cord, and close the hole.

3. Make zongzi (dumplings):

Everyone eats at least one zongzi rice dumpling today to bring good luck. Originally zongzi (pronounced zong-za) might have been an offering to the dragons who brought the summer rain.

Zongzi are filled with many different things - I used sweet red bean paste.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 c. sticky (glutinous) rice
• 6 large bamboo leaves (sold in Asian food stores)
• 1 c. sweet red bean paste
• 6 pieces of string

The recipe is here.

4. Throw zongzi in the water: 

Another tradition (that seems to tie things together in my mind) is to throw zongzi into the river, as an offering to the Dragon King, the divine ruler of the ocean. The Dragon King lives in an underwater crystal palace, and can manipulate the weather and bring rainfall.

I will take one zongzi to the creek to offer the Dragon King (and probably the ducks as well).