Celebrating Dragon Boat Festival abroad

People attend a ceremony during the Gangneug Danoje Festival in Kangnung, South Korea, June 23, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

2. South Korea

The Gangneung Danoje Festival takes place in the town of Gangneung and its surroundings, east of the Taebaek Mountain Range on the Korean peninsula. It is 13th on the list of Important Cultural Properties of South Korea.

The only connection between China's Dragon Boat Festival and South Korea's Gangneung Danoje Festival is that they both fall on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Gangneung Danoje has the longest history among Korean local festivals and its main purpose is to worship the guardian spirit of a mountain that protects the town, pray for peace in the town and its families and farming prosperity.

Festival celebrations consist of shamanistic ritual, folk dances and songs, oral narrative poetry and various popular pastimes. The Nanjang market is another festival element, where local products and handicrafts are sold and contests, games and circus performances take place.