In May, the pomegranate flowers are bright and dazzling. The green willows hang heavy with raindrops. Colorful silk threads are wound around the rice dumplings. They are served on a golden platter. A silk-painted fan depicts two phoenixes.
It is the time for bathing in fragrant herbs. We share delicious calamus wine. From time to time, a yellow oriole chirps from the leaves. Still drowsy, I am suddenly startled awake from my muslin-window dream.
—— Ouyang Xiu, "The Fisher's Pride"
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month, Dragon Boat Festival, the ancient Summer Solstice day, the New Year’s Day in Zhuanxu and Yin-Shang ancient calendar when people tasted sticky rice, the day for dragon descendants’ sacrifice, commemorating Qu Yuan’s throwing himself into the river... It is another long story. The origins and developments of Dragon Boat Festival carry our ancestors' sorrowful or peaceful thoughts and feelings, which have gradually faded away in thousands of years of history. Unwittingly, only the memory of Zongzi remains. As our traditional festivals become increasingly pale and hollow, a certain country in East Asia has taken the initiative to inject its own cultural content into this ancient Chinese festival name, promoting it as a unique cultural symbol to the world. Will the fate of the Dragon Boat Festival be the same as Shangsi Festival after several years?
—— Preface