Archived News

The Dragon Boat Festival goes by many names including the Duanwu Festival, the Tuen Ng Festival and the Double Fifth Festival. The last name originates from the fact that the holiday falls on the 5th day of the 5th month according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The festival has been celebrated annually for over 2,000 years and was recently recognised as an official public holiday in China.

 
What Do We Celebrate On The Dragon Boat Festival?

The festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan who lived from 340 to 278 BC. This celebrated poet committed suicide by throwing himself into a river in protest of his State being invaded by the State of Qin. Villagers tried to find his body by sailing boats up and down the river, beating drums to save Qu Yuan from evil spirits and throwing food into the river including eggs and Zongzi to attract fish, preventing them from eating Qu Yuan’s body.
What Happens On This Special Day?

The actions of the excited villagers inform many of the actions taken by the public celebrating this festival:

Dragon Boat Racing: To commemorate the villagers who rowed their boats in a bid to save Qu Yuan teams of rowers take to rivers in boats with the fore and stern shaped as a dragon. Boats compete with each other in races with drummers helping the rowers to keep time.

Eating Zongzi: Zongzi is a traditional dumpling made from sticky rice with many kinds of fillings. The dumpling is wrapped in leaves in a triangular shape and steamed. Traditionally they were thrown into rivers over the festival but people prefer simply to eat them nowadays.

 
Focusing On Health: The festival occurs during the summer months when diseases spread by mosquitoes and flies were very prevalent.  There is thus much focus on health over this period with people wearing perfumed medicine bags, hanging up mugwort and calamus and drinking Realgar wine (considered an anti-dote to most poisons) all to prevent disease and promote health.

How can I increase my luck on this day?

As lottery players you must undoubtedly be wondering how the Dragon Boat Festival can help to increase your luck. Well, to increase their luck for the coming year Festival celebrants partake in Egg standing competitions. It is believed that if you can make a raw egg stand by itself you will have good luck for the year. If you are looking to try this method to increase your odds on the Powerball lottery then here is a tip to help you: place the egg down on its wider side and sprinkle some salt on the surface before trying.

Why not make your egg stand and then try any one of the lotteries being drawn on Saturday the 23rd? Lotteries up for grabs include the American Powerball, the UK Lottery and the Brazilian Mega-Sena lotto.

PlayHugeLottos.com wishes all who celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival across the world a very good day!