(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-07 16:16

The day gradually became a traditional occasion for paying homage to ancestors and departed family members.

The Dragon Boat Festival has been celebrated for thousands of years to commemorate Qu Yuan, a great Chinese patriotic poet, who lived in the state of Chu during the Warring States period (475 B.C. to 221 B.C.). He drowned himself in the Miluo River in today's Hunan Province in 278 B.C., on fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, hoping his death would alert the king to revitalize the kingdom.

The tradition arose that on the day of his death dragon boat races would be held and people should eat "zongzi", glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves.

The Mid-Autumn festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, is considered an occasion for reunion of family members and loved ones. On the occasion, they would eat moon cakes, light lanterns while enjoying the full moon - an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck.

The festival was flavored by the legend of Chang'e, a lonely fairy on the moon. According to the legend, she was the beautiful wife of Hou Yi, a hero who shot down nine suns scorching the earth but was slain by his apprentice Feng Meng. Threatened by the murderer, Chang'e drank an elixir and flew to the moon.

China introduced the "Golden week" holidays in 1999, in a bid to boost domestic consumption.

It was reported that tourism revenue has increased from 14.1 billion yuan ($1.76 billion) during the National Day holiday in 1999 to 64.2 billion yuan during the "Golden week" this October.

Statistics also showed that the year 2001 alone saw tourist numbers reach 780 million, much higher than the figure of 240 million in 1989. While China's outbound tourists rose to 12.13 million in 2001, a big jump from 3 million in the early 1990s.

But after several years' experience, complaints about overcrowding, poor service, a scarcity of hotel rooms, and damage to scenic spots, especially historic sites, during the "Golden Week" holidays have spurred debate over the merits of the week-long holiday concept.

Last year, Cai Jiming proposed shortening the National Day and May Day holidays from three days to one day and distributing the days to celebrate four traditional festivals - the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and New Year's Eve.

Other Chinese scholars have also reiterated their belief that the important traditional Chinese festivals should be made public holidays.

"The current holiday system does not accord with the long-standing customs of Chinese people," said Liu Quili, President of the Chinese Folklore Society.

Huang Tao, an associate professor of the People's University of China, said the most effective measures to protect cultural festivals were to make the traditional festivals legal holidays to enable more people to understand the importance of tradition.

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