ONE of Hong Kong’s biggest festivals currently sees its shores and waterways inhabited by brightly hued dragon boats. The commonly used English name for the holiday refers to this aspect: the Dragon Boat Festival, known as Festividade do Barco-Dragão (Portuguese) in Macau and Mendayung Perahu (rowing boat) in Indonesia.
But it is the Chinese name of the festival – Duanwu in mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Macau, and Tuen Ng (Cantonese) in Hong Kong – that reflects its significance in the lunisolar calendar, and explains its accompanying traditions.