Dragon Boat Festival · Worksheet 1
Boats, Dragons, and Rice in Leaves
Read the story. 英文を読もう。
1More than 2,000 years ago, a sad poet stood by a river in southern China. His name was Qu Yuan. He loved his country very much, but the king sent him away. When an enemy army took the capital, Qu Yuan jumped into the river.
2The story says that local people jumped into their boats to find him. They rowed fast and beat drums to scare the fish away. They also threw rice into the water, so the fish would eat the rice and not the poet. This is how many people explain the start of the Dragon Boat Festival.
3The festival is on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. So it usually comes in late May or June. Teams race long, thin boats with dragon heads. Twenty people paddle together, and one person beats a big drum at the front. Families eat zongzi, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. In the north, many people like sweet zongzi, but in the south, salty ones are popular.
4Long ago, people believed the fifth month was a dangerous time. It was hot, and many people got sick. So they hung strong-smelling plants on their doors to keep bad things away. Children wore threads of five colors on their wrists for good luck.
5This festival also traveled to Japan a long time ago. Today, Japanese families celebrate Children's Day on May 5. They eat chimaki, take baths with the same strong-smelling plant, and fly carp streamers. In an old Chinese story, a carp that swims up a waterfall becomes a dragon. So on May 5, there are dragons in Japan, too.
- poet 詩人
- capital 首都、都
- row （舟を）こぐ
- paddle （パドルで）こぐ
- scare away おどして追い払う
- lunar 月の、太陰の
- sticky ねばねばした
- wrap 包む
- dangerous 危険な
- thread 糸
- carp 鯉（こい）
- waterfall 滝