At assembly on Wednesday, May 7, the students in Dr. McAloon’s two Chinese classes shared the story behind the Dragon Boat Festival, a holiday in Chinese culture celebrating devotion and loyalty. 

The activity began with the B Period class giving memorized presentations. Bobby Hunter ’25 and Chase Copeland ’26 described the Dragon Boat Festival’s background and celebrations in Chinese, Francis Kim ’27 translated into English, Richard Kinzinger ’26 taught the school some Chinese words associated with the holiday, PJ Kiesling ’26 summarized the holiday traditions, and Cash Mills ’26 wished everyone a happy holiday in English and Chinese. The class then threw paper imitations of glutenous rice balls filled with Chinese hard candies into the audience. 

The D period class took the same assignment and went in a different direction, with Jacob Kitonga ’26 first describing the Dragon Boat Festival origin story, and then Logan Swing ’27, Malcolm Thompson ’26, Briggs Dubuque ’26, and William Appiah ’26 acting out that story in a video filmed on the WFS stage and in the Rapidan River with costumes and props. 

By the end of the activity, the entire Woodberry community learned that every year, Chinese people celebrate an official in the pre-China country of Chu named Qu Yuan whose wise counsel went unheeded by his king and thus Chu was conquered by the king of the country of Qin, who went on to become the first emperor of a unified polity that would eventually become China. Following an East Asian tradition of dying to demonstrate depth of commitment, Qu Yuan drowned himself in a river when his country was defeated. The locals rowed boats and threw rice balls in the river to keep the fish from desecrating his body, deeds that are reflected in the modern-day traditions of holding dragon boat races and eating steamed glutenous rice balls with tasty fillings. 

Through this activity, the Woodberry community learned about a holiday celebrated by about 20 percent of the world’s population, the boys taking Chinese got to show off their skills, and international students from China had another opportunity to see that they are known and loved.