#bamboo leaf

[buffetlicious]

The Dragon Boat Festival or Duan Wu Jie (端午节), is also known as Duan Yang Jie (端阳节), which means “Upright Sun” or “Double Fifth” (重午/重五). Falling on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month around the summer solstice which happened to be 10th June 2024 this year. The festival is also commonly referred to as the Fifth Month Festival amongst the Chinese. Its origins can be traced to southern China, and festivities include boat races and eating rice dumplings. The festival had evolved from the practice of revering the river dragon, to the commemoration of Qu Yuan (屈原), a third-century poet and political figure of the state of Chu in ancient China.

Legends and Myths - River Dragon (蛟龙)

The dragon was initially viewed as the benevolent spirit of the waters. It exemplified the masculine principle or yang in the Chinese ideology of harmony. Among common folk, it was believed that the River Dragon (蛟龙) controlled the rain and was thus worshipped during the summer solstice. Requests would be made for a balanced rainfall – sufficient to ensure a good harvest, without over-abundance that would cause destructive flooding.

Legends and Myths - Qu Yuan (屈原)

Primitive worship of the river dragon was often practised during the summer solstice. The Dragon Boat Festival was associated with Qu Yuan’s story only in the second century. Qu Yuan (屈原) was a poet and a statesman for the Chu kingdom (楚国) during the Warring States Period (战国时代). He served in high office and he advocated a policy of aligning with other kingdoms against the dominant Qin. However, political intrigue led Lord Huai to banish Qu Yuan instead. The ministry was left in the hands of corrupt statesmen and Qu Yuan helplessly watched his motherland decline. Depressed, he penned beautiful, patriotic poetry such as Li Sao (离骚) which means Encountering Sorrow, an allegorical poem stating his political aspirations and Jiu Ge (九歌) or Nine Songs, which gained Qu Yuan great renown.

With his top adviser gone, the king fell for the trickery of the Qin and his kingdom was eventually conquered. Upon hearing that his kingdom’s capital had been overtaken by the Qin, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Mi Luo River (汨罗江). As he was adored by people everywhere, the local people did everything in their power to try to either save Qu Yuan, or at the very least, to protect him in the afterlife.

Hereupon the legend varies. Some suggest that fishermen at the scene attempted to save their minister. Having failed, they sought to appease his spirit by throwing rice stuffed in bamboo stems into the river to prevent the fish from eating Qu Yuan’s body. Others say that the rice offerings were snatched by a river dragon and the rice had to be bundled in chinaberry leaves instead and tied with five different coloured silk threads in order to be effective. The triangular Rice Dumplings (粽子) thus became entwined with the festivities. Another version tells of farmers rowing out in dragon boats in their attempt to save Qu Yuan. Hence, Dragon Boat Racing (赛龙舟) has been held annually on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, in honour of the memory of Qu Yuan.

Or if reading through a wall of texts is not your cup of tea, here is a pictorial guide to summarize on the history of Qu Yuan (屈原) and how we ended up celebrating Dragon Boat Festival (端午节) with dragon boat racing and rice dumplings on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

All images are from the internet. Selected text info from here.

[metasattva]

Autumn 4 seasons in the neighborhood, Japan

[princessfromthelandofporcelain]

Chūkei fan with the Queen Mother of the West and King Mu of Zhou (obverse) and a plum tree and young pines (reverse)

Japanese, Edo Period, first half of the 19th century

ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper; bamboo ribs and lacquer

Metropolitan Museum of Art

[firstlawcedarprairie]

Heavenly bamboo leaves after the rain

[re-reclass]

“We’re stuck! We’re stuck in this time plane three years in the past with no way of getting home, and we can’t get back to our time!”

“That sounds pretty serious.”

“Super serious!”

(Textless versions and logo under the cut)

[lavs-stimming-mood]

A self-indulgent stimboard of Ogerpon!

🍃 🍊 🪨

🌳 x 🌳

🔥 📙 🌊

[gummi-stims]

A stimboard for Drago from Animal Crossing!

🐉-🍀-🐉

🍀- x -🍀

🐉-🍀-🐉

[quiverpaw]

i almost envy the side books compared to warriors. they have so much lore compared to warriors… which really just feels like ‘oh the good dead cats go here, the bad ones there. there are special little guys who talk to the good dead cats”

[letyukisayfuck]

i think the funniest option is that haruhi and kyon are both gods and everyone is mistakenly attributing All Of The Weirdness to haruhi, despite everyone (up to and including the sus brigade) knowing that kyon is somehow Important

[one-with-the-tree]

#19 Leaf

Book name: Bamboo Kingdom

Author: Erin Hunter

The third protagonist. She's personally my least favorite of the three but she's a decent character still. 

Lineart by Northernred (DeviantArt)

[buffetlicious]

May you be surrounded with alluring fragrance and the sweet or savoury taste of rice dumplings. Wishing all my food blog readers a memorable Dragon Boat Festival.

愿你被诱人的香味包围，享受着热腾腾粽子的甜蜜滋味，祝你过一个难忘的端午节。

What is the legend behind the festival? 

You may know that the Dragon Boat Festival (端午节/龙舟节) is meant to commemorate the death of the Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who died in the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period (475–221BC), a bloody time when the different provinces of modern-day China fought endlessly against each other. 

The patriotic poet Qu Yuan (屈原) was filled with despair about the state of his home and drowned himself in the Miluo River in Hunan province. According to legend, locals raced out in their boats to try and save him and threw balls of sticky rice into the river to protect his body from being eaten by fish. 

However, it is also believed that the festival preceded before Qu’s tragic death, as a way to ward off bad luck. According to Chinese belief, the Fifth Lunar Month (农历五月) is “poisonous” because poisonous creatures, like snakes and scorpions, are active during the early days of summer. They also believed that people were more prone to illness during this time, so they held different celebrations to keep evil spirits, diseases, pests, and drought away. 

Selected images from here, here and here.

[bonguri]

20231120 West-Gifu Autumn tints 8 by Bong Grit Via Flickr: もう少し移動して美濃赤坂駅すぐ近くのお茶屋屋敷跡。モミジもこんな大木になるんだ。 @Photo taken at Ruins of a teahouse mansion, Ogaki city, Gifu pref. （岐阜県大垣市 お茶屋屋敷跡）

[categorised-art-tutorials-tips]

How to Draw Bamboo Tutorial

Credit: Etherington Brothers

[shigirlsworld888]

IG: shotsbyshi

[aliferoussoul-clicks]

[dawnleaf37]

add more plants to object shows