On Jun 21, CIB at UMB (Confucius Institute for Business at Matej Bel University) held a cultural exchange event together with the State Scientific Library at Banska Bystrica, focusing on the coming Duanwu Jie, or the Dragon Boat Festival. The event was bilingual in English and in Slovak, with Miss Mária Onderufová, the head of Windows of Shanghai, as the interpreter.

There are different stories as to the origin of the festival. The most popular one is concerned with Quyuan (340 BC - 278 BC), an ancient Chinese poet, who is regarded as the first author of verse in China to have his name associated to his work. It’s not that there were no writers or poets before him, but that no poetic works were attributed to a specific author prior to his time. He’s a trail-blazer in verse writing, initiating a new style – The Sao Style - which was named after his work “Li Sao” (离骚, Encountering Sorrow), in which he abandoned the classic four-character verses used in "Shijing" (1100 BC - 600 BC), or the Book of Songs. He adopted verses with varying lengths. This resulted in poems with more rhythm and latitude in expression. Here is a little comparison of 离骚 and 诗经: the first song in Shijing and the beginning lines in Lisao.

 

 Yet, such a great poet drowned himself in the River of Miluo on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. He had his ambition, yet he found no way to fulfill it; he was genius in governing the country, yet he was wronged and injusticed; he had intention to serve his State, yet he was put into exile. The news that the capital city of his own State was captured in 278 BC became the last straw.

Popular legend has it that local villagers raced their boats on the river to find his body, but they were unsuccessful. To prevent fish from eating Qu Yuan's body, they threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river. This has since evolved into the traditions of eating zongzi and rowing dragon boats during the festival. It so happened that this year, 2023, is the 2300th anniversary in commemoration of Quyuan’s sacrifice to his State of Chu, one of the seven during the Warring State Period (476 BC-221BC).

After the lecture, the participants learned how to make Zongzi (the sticky rice dumplings), and how to DIY their own 5-coloured braids, which is known as long-life knots and is believed to have the capacity to drive evil things away. 

By the end of the event, the participants tasted the traditional flavor of ZONGZI, which had been made by all Chinese members of CIB at UMB. The participants were also presented a scented bag filled with traditional Chinese medicine. The event ended with chanting to each other of "Duanwu Ankang", or, Wish you all the safety and wellness on Duanwu Jie.

Tips: Why do Chinese not say Happy Duanwu Jie as it is a festival? This is because it is a day of commemoration. Instead of saying "Happy Duanwu", the Chinese say “Wish you all the safety and wellness at Duanwu”, or 端午安康 (Duānwǔ ānkāng). Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is a very special one among all traditional Chinese festivals.