7. The dragon boat festival

<1>The Dragon Boat Festival is one of three major Chinese Festivals,along with the spring and Moon Festival.Of the three,it is possibly the oldest,dating back to the Warring States period in 227 BC.The festival commemorates Qu Yuan,a minister in the service of Chu Emperor.

<2>Despairing over corruption at court,Qu threw himself into a river.Townspeople jumped into their boats and tried in vain to save him.Then,hoping to distract hungry fish from his body,the people scattered rice on the water.

<3>Over the years,the story of QU's demise transformed into the traditions of racing dragon boats and eating zongzi——a kind of rice wrapped into bamboo leaves.The races have certainly captured imagination of people from all over the world.

<4>Every spring there are nearly 60 dragon boat races held outside of China in cities from Vancouver to Sydney.Canada alone has nearly 50 dragon boat teams and Germany has nearly 30.

<5>So what is it about the Dragon Boat Festival that appeals to foreigners?"It's an unusual sport,"says one racer from Germany."It's not like everybody doing it.That's one of the reasons that there's such great team spirit in a dragon boat team——everybody feel like we're doing something special."

<1>端午节是中国三大节日之一，与春节和中秋节并列。在这三个节日中，它可能是最古老的，可以追溯到公元前227年的战国时期。这个节日是为了纪念屈原，为楚帝效力的大臣。

<2>对朝廷的贪污腐败绝望，屈原投身河中。市民跳上船，想救他，但徒劳无功。于是，人们为了引开他身上的饥饿的鱼，把米撒在水面上。

<3>多年来，屈原灭亡的故事变成了赛龙舟和吃粽子的传统——一种用竹叶包着的米饭。这些种族当然吸引了世界各地的人们的想象力。

<4>每年春天，从温哥华到悉尼，在中国以外的城市都会举办近60场龙舟比赛。仅加拿大就有近50支龙舟队，德国就有近30支。

<5>那么端午节吸引外国人的原因是什么？“这是一项不寻常的运动，”一位来自德国的赛车手说。“并不是每个人都这样做。这就是为什么有如此伟大的团队精神的原因之一。龙舟队——每个人都觉得我们在做一些特别的事情。”