--- title: Google Doodle Celebrates Asia's Dragon Boat Festival description: A Google Doodle on Thursday marked the first day of East Asia's annual Dragon Boat Festival canonical: https://time.com/4362263/google-doodle-dragon-boat-festival-2016/ author: Simon Lewis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-09T04:01:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:10.327Z og:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Asia's Dragon Boat Festival og:description: It commemorates the death of the Chinese poet and official Qu Yuan in 278 B.C. og:url: https://time.com/4362263/google-doodle-dragon-boat-festival-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33d919c4941e68a5/6988970c0b72e356486e9bd9/screen-shot-2016-06-09-at-10-49-46-am.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 10.49.46 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Doodle Celebrates Asia's Dragon Boat Festival twitter:description: It commemorates the death of the Chinese poet and official Qu Yuan in 278 B.C. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33d919c4941e68a5/6988970c0b72e356486e9bd9/screen-shot-2016-06-09-at-10-49-46-am.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Doodle Celebrates Asia's Dragon Boat Festival by [Simon Lewis](https://time.com/author/simon-lewis/) ## Simon Lewis Jun 9, 2016 4:01 AM UTC  Google by [Simon Lewis](https://time.com/author/simon-lewis/) ## Simon Lewis Jun 9, 2016 4:01 AM UTC A Google Doodle on Thursday marked the first day of East Asia’s annual Dragon Boat Festival. In China, Hong Kong and Malaysia, visitors to the search engine will see an illustration by Alyssa Winans depicting an example of the dragon’s head that is carved into the bow of the boats raced during the festival. In Hong Kong, where the day is a public holiday, crews representing the city’s companies and community associations will take to the water, with paddlers sitting in two lines in the boat and rowing to a drumbeat. International rowing teams also participate. The dragon in the illustration has in its jaws leaf-wrapped parcels of sticky rice, a traditional snack enjoyed during _Duanwu_ or _Tuen Ng_, as the festival is called in Mandarin and Cantonese respectively. The festival is celebrated in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, according to Google’s [explanation](http://www.google.com/doodles/dragon-boat-festival-2016) of the Doodle. It falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and commemorates the death of the Chinese poet and official Qu Yuan in 278 B.C. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4362263/google-doodle-dragon-boat-festival-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4362263/google-doodle-dragon-boat-festival-2016/"},"headline":"Google Doodle Celebrates Asia's Dragon Boat Festival","datePublished":"2016-06-09T04:01:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:10.327Z","description":"The festival commemorates the death of the Chinese poet and official Qu Yuan in 278 B.C.","url":"https://time.com/4362263/google-doodle-dragon-boat-festival-2016/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Hong Kong topic","China","Asia","Google Doodle","boat"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33d919c4941e68a5/6988970c0b72e356486e9bd9/screen-shot-2016-06-09-at-10-49-46-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Simon Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/simon-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt33d919c4941e68a5/6988970c0b72e356486e9bd9/screen-shot-2016-06-09-at-10-49-46-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 10.49.46 AM","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4362263/google-doodle-dragon-boat-festival-2016/","name":"Google Doodle Celebrates Asia's Dragon Boat Festival"}}]}] ```