dragon boat festival
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.11 in modern English
28
Scrabble Score
18
Letters
4
Syllables
14
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A Chinese holiday on Duanwu, the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar
Example Sentences
- "Behind the Dragon Boat Festival is the tragically heroic story of a famous Chinese poet and statesman of ancient times, Chu Yuan, who ended his life by jumping into a river. His reason: he was not able to save his country, which he saw heading toward destruction."
- "In the folk tradition, rites, festivals, and myths began an early accretion around an apotheosized Ch'ü Yuan. The most famous of these, the Dragon Boat Festival (Tuan-wu chieh), takes place on the summer solstice, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, ostensibly to search for Ch'ü Yuan's body."
Etymology
Calque of Chinese 龍船節 /龙船节 (Lóngchuánjié) or 龍舟節 /龙舟节 (Lóngzhōujié), an alternative name for 端午節 /端午节 (Duānwǔjié) from the races traditionally held on that day in southern China, now popularly connected with the legend of townspeople racing to throw zongzi into the Miluo River to preserve the body of the Chu poet and statesman Qu Yuan.
Inflected Forms
the Dragon Boat Festival (canonical)