Hello!
Today is the Dragon Boat Festival - a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.
There are several stories tied to the origin of this event:
The ancient one says that this national holiday originated as a ritual, which will help avoid bad luck. But why the bad luck in June? You see, people believed that fifth month of the calendar is unlucky and that illness and natural disasters are more common at this time of year.
But a more commonly believed story tells us that the festival commemorates the passing of Qu Yuan, a poet and minister in the ancient state of Chu. When the emperor decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance and even accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him, or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi - is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Photo Credit: 內灣野薑花粽 by Flickr user shenghunglin
You might be thinking "why tell you this?". Well, we kinda stumbled upon and thought that it could be really cool to try and recreate some of the historic events in Spirit of the Island later on. Would you like to see time-limited themed events in the game? Please tell us in the comments!
As for the date, sadly, we don't have boat racing or zongzi, but you can do a memorial voyage across the Archipelago with your friend to commemorate the date - it's the thought that counts after all.
Have a great weekend everyone - we are looking forward for your thoughts!