Why We Celebrate The Dragon Boat Festival?

Years ago, one day, I had a short conversation with my little girl who had just received kindergarten education in Canada for less than 1.5 years after our settle down.

"Baby, we are going to celebrate an important festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, in days. And we will enjoy a feast of Zongzi (粽子)."

"What's Zongzi? Why we will celebrate this festival?" She asked.

"It is to memorize a great poet, QuYuan, in China history centuries of years ago."

"But why we eat Zongzi? What is the dragon boat?"

"QuYuan loved his country very much. When he realized the country was in danger of the devil and he failed in saving it, he dedicated his life by jumping into a river... This touched and waked up many many people. They made Zongxi and threw Zongzi into the river to feed fishes. They also drove dragon boats to scare away fishes from eating his body."

The little girl took over my sentence and said with no hesitation: "Oh. He did not like his body. He should love himself and should not jump into the river to die."

A sharp astonishment hit me.

"Baby, you are right. Everyone should love and cherish their life, their body. But when evil things happen in our environment, damaging the world, nobody can live well. We all need to do our best to fight for the better, sometimes at a high cost. Because, if everyone thinks it is not their responsibility, the problem will never be solved."

#love #peace#unity #chineseculture #wisdom #authenticity #education #perception #emotionalintelligence