字神帝國英語天地

The dragon boat festival, believed to have been celebrated for over 2,000 years, takes place on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar throughout China and in Chinese communities worldwide. It commemorates the death of Qu Yuan (c340-278 b.c.), China's first known poet, who drowned himself when his home state of Chu was overthrown; the dragon boat races traditionally represent the search for his body.

端午節在農曆5月5日，咸信已有2000多年的歷史，中國各地和全球的華人社區均有慶祝。這個節日紀念的是中國第一位已知的詩人屈原，他因故土楚國滅亡而投江自盡。傳統上，龍舟競渡代表的是搜尋他的遺體。

美國最大、地位最崇高的《韋氏三版新國際英語詞典》（Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language，簡稱W3）也收錄了Dragon Boat Festival，不過定義精簡模糊了許多：

Dragon Boat Festival: a Chinese festival held just before the summer solstice that has as its chief event a race among long narrow boats resembling dragons.

端午節：夏至前不久所慶祝的一個中國的節日，主要活動是划著像龍的長形窄船競速比賽。

牛津、韋氏這兩部執英文詞典牛耳的權威巨著都沒有收錄Duanwu或Duanwu Festival。

時下有人主張把「端午」按漢語拼音直譯為Duanwu，「端午節」依此譯為Duanwu Festival，但傳統的英譯Dragon Boat Festival行之有年，大家早已習慣接受，上Google搜尋一查，新式的Duanwu Festival只有不到6萬筆的網頁資料，而傳統的Dragon Boat Festival則以350萬筆的驚人數量壓倒性超過。

「端午節」的英文該用哪個，答案不言而喻。

文章來源：端午節的英文是？