Double five party 5 Wǔyuè

Le cinquième mois lunaire est considéré comme un mois malchanceux. Les gens croyaient que les catastrophes naturelles et les maladies étaient courantes au cours du cinquième mois. Pour se débarrasser du malheur, les gens mettaient du calamus, de l’armoise, des fleurs de grenade, de l’ixora chinois et de l’ail au-dessus des portes le cinquième jour du cinquième mois. l’odeur de l’ail, on croit qu’ils peuvent éliminer les mauvais esprits.

Another explanation for the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival comes from before the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). The fifth month of the lunar calendar was considered a bad month, and the fifth day of the month was considered a bad day. Poisonous animals were said to appear from the fifth day of the fifth month, such as snakes, centipedes and scorpions; people are also said to get sick easily after this day. 

Therefore, during the Dragon Boat Festival, people try to avoid this bad luck. For example, people can stick pictures of the five poisonous creatures on the wall and stick needles into them. People can also cut out the five creatures from paper and wrap them around their children's wrists. Grand ceremonies and performances developed from these practices in many areas, making the Dragon Boat Festival a day to get rid of illness and bad luck.

Modern has it that the festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient State of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou dynasty. A cadet member of the Chu royal house, Qu held high office. However, 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 lot of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. Desperate, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.

It is said that the locals, who admired him, rushed in their boats to save him, or at least recover his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they threw balls of glutinous rice into the river for the fish to eat instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi.

Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Qu Yuan a commencé à être traité de manière nationaliste comme « le premier poète patriotique de Chine ». La vision de l’idéalisme social et du patriotisme inflexible de Qu est devenue canonique sous la République populaire de Chine après la victoire communiste de 1949 dans la guerre civile chinoise.

Despite the modern popularity of the Qu Yuan origin theory, in the ancient territory of the Kingdom of Wu, the festival commemorated Wu Zixu (died 484 BC), the prime minister of Wu. Xi Shi, a beautiful woman sent by King Goujian of the state of Yue, was much loved by King Fuchai of Wu. Wu Zixu, seeing Goujian's dangerous plot, warned Fuchai, who became angry at the remark. Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide by Fuchai, his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, in places like Suzhou, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Dragon Boat Festival.