Origin Of The Dragon Boat Race In Malaysia

Further to my previous entry on the Dragon Boat Competition, I wish to add a background story about the origin of the dragon boat race for the benefit of those readers who did not know about it already. At the biginning the dargon boat race was solely a Chinese affair, celebrated by the early migrants from China on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calender every year. This is the Duan Wu Festival (端午节), some simply call it the "rice dumpling festival" becuase every Chinese household must cook rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves called "zong"(粽) this particular day. As Malaysia being a multi-racial,multi-cultures country, this annual event slowly saw the participation from other communities and eventually become what it is today. Any way, let's get back to the story about how the dragon boat race was started. More than a thousand years ago in China, (I forgot in what dynasty it was already) there was this patriotic poet named Qu Yuan(屈原) was serving as a high ranking official in the Emperor's court. He was very worried and frustrated by the fact that the Emperor was surrounded by corrupt officials, and wise and hosnest officials like Qu Yuan were sidelined. As a result of following the ill advices given by the corrupt officials, the Emperor had run the country poorly and the people lived in dire hardship. Qu Yuan risked his life to offer his advice to the Emperor, the Emperor was annoyed and sent him into exile to a backward place at the border. Utterly disappointed and sad, Qu Yuan commited suicide by throwing himself into a river. On hearing this sad news, the village folks raced to the middle of the river on boats trying to rescue him or at least to recover his body. They throw many "zong" (粽) into the river so that the fish will feed on the zong and not damage the body of their beloved poet, Qu Yuan. The people carry out the same act of racing on boats in the river and throwing zongs into the river on the day Qu Yuan died, ie. the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calender every year. Over the years this performance has spread to the whole of China and even to overseas. There are also significant modifications taking place along the way, the zongs though are still a must every year, but they are landed in the stomach of the people instead in the rivers nowadays. And people started to carve decorations on the boats for the race, being Chinese their favourite figure is always the dragon, so there was a dragon on almost every boat, hence the name "Dragon Boat Race" was coined. This race has become an international event now but it is always good to know how it started.