AY is the Dragon Boat Festival of the Chinese, and no doubt it will be celebrated in many places in China and in countries outside China where there are large colonies of Chinese in the time-honoured way with dragon boat races on canals, rivers and lakes, the scattering of rice upon the waters, the eating of three-cornered cakes or puddings of glutinous rice, and the floating o! small lanterns on the waters after dark.
It is one of the most picturesque of the many annual festivals of the Chinese, and was even more so in the days before the advent of the Republic, Today its main importance lies in the fact that it is one of the three settlement days during the year, when accounts are closed and outstanding debts collected—if possible, Falling on the 5th Day of the 5th Moon, which is also known as the Dragon Moon, since the Chinese constellation of the Dragon is at its greatest altitude in the heavens at about this time, it belongs to the old-style Lumar calendar, and so is a movable feast in relation to our Western or Gregorian calendar and the Chinese Nature calendar, which ate based on the apparent, movements of the Sun. This year it comes earlier than usual. as was the case with the Chinese New Year Festival.
The Chinese call it the Wu Yueh Chieh, which means the "Fifth Moon Festival." The name "Dragon Boat Festival" was given to it by the British when they first came to China because of the dragon boat races already mentioned. Frequently these are Very spectacular, the boats being of special design, long and narrow, and each being provided with an ornate dragon's head at the bows and tail at the stern, as well as with ceremonial] umbrellas and flags in the Shanghai area, but not further south. They are propelled by numerous enthusiasts using canoe-paddles, which ig a method of propulsion altogether
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.