A blessing from ancient times -- Snapshots of Chinese Dragon Boat Festival

A girl shows zongzi she made in Feicuijun Community of Jinan City, capital of east China's Shandong Province, May 29, 2011. Zongzi is the typical snack on Dragon Boat Festival of a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. Residents attended a zongzi festival held in the community to greet the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival. [Photo/Xinhua]

GOOD LUCK AND NO DISEASE

The rice packets that were once dumped into the Miluo River are now called zongzi, the feature food of the Dragon Boat Festival. They are glutinous stuffed rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and are offered at the family gatherings during the festival.

This year, as the Dragon Boat Festival fell one day before the National College Entrance Examination, the snacks were made to carry special blessings for the examinees.

Duan Peng, a citizen in the city of Hefei, prepared both zongzi and mung bean cakes for his son, who would take the national exams as of Tuesday.

"'Cake and zongzi' pronounce similar to 'pass the exam' in Chinese. We hope they could bring good luck to my son," said Duan.

Sachets containing fragrant herbs, which are believed to guard the carriers from evil spirits and bad luck, also saw a rebound in popularity. Apart from being an auspicious ornament, young fashionistas said they could also help insomniacs and keep away annoying mosquitoes.

In the southwestern border county of Duanxi, the festival featured a huge bazaar of herbal medicines, as locals believed the curative power of plants peaked at days before the festival.

"I've prepared half a month and picked from nearby mountains 800 kilograms of herbs, all for this big day," said Li Changjiang, a local farmer.

In this yearly pageant of herbs, farmers lined up the streets with rare plants and practitioners from ethnic Zhuang medicines offered free moxibustion treatment.

According to ancient beliefs, the Dragon Boat Festival was a day when poisons and diseases prevailed. Washing with moxa-leaf soup and spreading realgar wine were common practices to dispel the unhealthy elements.