Tenants of the German Center Taicang make scent bags to celebrate the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival on June 21. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

On June 21, the tenants of the German Center Taicang were able to learn more about the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival. Everybody enjoyed making their own scent bags and was delighted in the wonderful smell of dried herbs on the 12th floor of German Centre.

The Dragon Boat festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese lunar calendar. A legend says the tradition goes back to the time of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) when one of China's first poets Qu Yuan was a minister of the state of Chu. After being exiled by the king, he decided to drown himself in a river. To save his dead body, fishermen raced to the middle of river while throwing rice balls into the water to prevent fish from harming Qu's dead body.

This legend is a possible origin for the dragon boat races which are held all over China on this day, as well as eating zongzi (rice balls wrapped in bamboo leafs) in commemoration of the great poet Qu.

The Dragon boat festival is also a day devoted to health, because the increasingly hot weather during this time used to be the cause for many diseases. Therefore, people made small bags, put dried herbs inside and hung them around. These scent bags were supposed to protect people from diseases and keep the evil away.