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— Nancy Jones, Toronto
Women were not allowed in dragon boats until modern times. Rather, they paddled in phoenix boats.6 In Chinese mythology, the dragon exemplified the masculine principle of yang and the phoenix, the feminine principle of yin in the Chinese ideology of cosmic harmony. Both the sun and the dragon are considered to be male (yang) forces and are most powerful at this time of the year.7 Once the dragon was awakened in the ceremony, it had to be treated with respect and protected from anything that might diminish its yang character, such as contact with women. As a result, dragon boat racing was a ritual celebration that excluded women.
Of all the customs associated with the Dragon Boat Festival, none rival that of the preparation and eating of zongzi, sticky rice dumplings wrapped in leaves. The story behind these rice delicacies is linked to Qu Yuan. After the villagers arrived too late in their boats to save Qu Yuan from drowning, some say that they threw rice into the water, which the fish or the River Dragon, by other accounts, would eat instead of Qu Yuan’s body. Others say that the rice was to feed the spirit of Qu Yuan in his afterlife. While the real reason remains obscured, the custom of eating zongzi has endured until today. Zongzi can be purchased year round at Chinese restaurants, stores, and bakeries. And, Chinese families continue making these delicacies during the Dragon Boat Festival, their own special recipes handed down through generations.