The Dragon Boat Festival is one of three major Chinese holidays, alongwith the Spring and Moon Festivals. Of the three, it is possibly the oldest,dating back to the Warring States Period in 227 B.C. The festivalcommemorates Qu Yuan, a minister in the service of the Chu Emperor. 　　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 riceon the water. 　　Over the years, the story of Qu’s demise transformed into the traditionsof racing dragon boats and eating zongzi–a kind of rice wrapped inbamboo leaves. The races have certainly captured the imagination ofpeople from all over the world. Every spring there are nearly 60 dragon boat races held outside of Chinain cities from Vancouver to Sydney. Canada alone has nearly 50 dragonboat teams and Germany has nearly 30. 　　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 likeeverybody’s doing it. That’s one of the reasons that there’s suchgreat team spirit in a dragon boat team–everybody feels like we’redoing something special.” And what about the zongzi? “Ehhh, they’re not bad, I guess,” he says. “Something of an acquired taste. I justhaven’t really acquired it yet.” 　　端午節與春節和中秋節並列為中國三大節日。這三個節日中，它可能是最古老的一個，可以追溯到公元前 227 年的戰國時代。這個節日是為了紀念楚國的大夫屈原。 　　他因為對朝廷的貪汙腐敗感到絕望而投河自盡。鎮上的人紛紛衝上船去救他，卻沒有成功。後來大家把米撒到水裡，希望把飢餓的魚群從他的軀體邊引開。 　　多年以後，屈原逝世的故事逐漸演變成賽龍舟和吃粽子(一種包在竹葉中的米食)的傳統。這些競賽顯然激起了世界各地人們的想象。 　　每年春天有將近 60 場龍舟賽在中國境外的城市舉辦，從溫哥華到悉尼，從波蘭的格但斯克到南非的開普敦。單單字加拿大就有將近 50 支龍舟隊伍，德國則有近 30 個。 　　那麼，為什麼端午節賽龍舟會吸引外國人呢？“這是一項不尋常的運動。”一位來自德國的參賽者說，“這並不是所有的人都在從事的運動。這正是龍舟隊的團隊精神如此高昂的原因之一，每個人都覺得自己在做一件很特別的事。”那麼粽子呢？“喔，我覺得它不難吃。”他說，“那是一種需要後天培養的品味。我只是還沒培養出來罷了。”

本文來自部落格園，作者：秋華，轉載請註明原文連結：https://www.cnblogs.com/qiu-hua/p/15952657.html