Last Saturday, Master Translations sponsored a cultural exchange activity organized by Xiamen Science and Technology Bureau’s and Yundang Sub-district’s Foreign Professionals Service Center Guanren Branch. The event evolved around the Dragon Boat Festival and welcomed both local and expat families. Guanren Community, known in Xiamen as a big international family brought together 15 families from Latvia, France, Iran, India and South Africa to learn about the Dragon Boat Festival, taste the authentic delicacies connected to the festival and get to know new friends.
DIY and cultural experience
The Dragon Boat Festival （端午节 Duānwǔ jié）falls on the fifth month of the lunar calendar. Traditionally, it was regarded as a bad month and the fifth day of the month, a bad day. Venomous animals were said to appear starting from the fifth day of the fifth month, such as snakes, centipedes, and scorpions; people also supposedly got sick easily after this day. Therefore, superstition says that to avoid this bad luck, different herbs or small sachets stuffed with them can be hung on doors.
Volunteers from Xiamen University introduced the origins of the festival, including the legend of Qu Yuan, a poet and minister, who drowned himself in a river on that day. His death is being commemorated on this day. This is why, on this day, it is not customary to say “Happy” Dragon Boat Festival, people prefer to wish each other good health by saying “端午安康!” (Duānwǔānkāng) .
When is the Dragon Boat Festival Celebrated in 2022?
This year, the Dragon Boat Festival falls on Friday June the 3rd.
How is the Dragon Boat Festival celebrated?
Some of the traditions include making and eating 粽子 (“zongzi”). Participants learned how to make “zongzi”, steamed rice packed in a leaf, as well as fragrant sachets filled with herbs such as wormwood, jasmine or lavender.
MTS was a proud sponsor of the event. Our colleagues Zuzana and Joanne participated and invited all foreign attendees to take part in the second edition of “Home Away from Home”, our essay competition for expats in China, which is ongoing. Thank you for this opportunity.
If you live in Xiamen and would like to know more about this type of cultural exchange activities organized by Boai Service Center, you can follow their page here.