<1>The Dragon Boat Festival is one of three major Chinese Festivals,along with the spring and Moon Festival.Of the three,it is possibly the oldest,dating back to the Warring States period in 227 BC.The festival commemorates Qu Yuan,a minister in the service of Chu Emperor.
<2>Despairing over corruption at court,Qu threw himself into a river.Townspeople jumped into their boats and tried in vain to save him.Then,hoping to distract hungry fish from his body,the people scattered rice on the water.
<3>Over the years,the story of QU's demise transformed into the traditions of racing dragon boats and eating zongzi——a kind of rice wrapped into bamboo leaves.The races have certainly captured imagination of people from all over the world.
<4>Every spring there are nearly 60 dragon boat races held outside of China in cities from Vancouver to Sydney.Canada alone has nearly 50 dragon boat teams and Germany has nearly 30.
<5>So what is it about the Dragon Boat Festival that appeals to foreigners?"It's an unusual sport,"says one racer from Germany."It's not like everybody doing it.That's one of the reasons that there's such great team spirit in a dragon boat team——everybody feel like we're doing something special."
<1>端午節是中國三大節日之一，與春節和中秋節並列。在這三個節日中，它可能是最古老的，可以追溯到公元前227年的戰國時期。這個節日是爲了紀念屈原，爲楚帝效力的大臣。
<2>對朝廷的貪污腐敗絕望，屈原投身河中。市民跳上船，想救他，但徒勞無功。於是，人們爲了引開他身上的飢餓的魚，把米撒在水面上。
<3>多年來，屈原滅亡的故事變成了賽龍舟和喫糉子的傳統——一種用竹葉包着的米飯。這些種族當然吸引了世界各地的人們的想象力。
<4>每年春天，從溫哥華到悉尼，在中國以外的城市都會舉辦近60場龍舟比賽。僅加拿大就有近50支龍舟隊，德國就有近30支。
<5>那麼端午節吸引外國人的原因是什麼？“這是一項不尋常的運動，”一位來自德國的賽車手說。“並不是每個人都這樣做。這就是爲什麼有如此偉大的團隊精神的原因之一。龍舟隊——每個人都覺得我們在做一些特別的事情。”