The Confucius Center at Kamuzu College of Nursing hosted the first ever Dragon Boat Festival celebrations in Lilongwe on June 10, 2016. The Dragon Boat festival (also known as Duanwu Festival, Duānwǔ Jié, Double Fifth, Tuen Ng Jit) is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar. It is celebrated in commemoration of the famous Chinese scholar Qu Yuan (Chu Yuan). Qu Yan is known as China’s first poet and therefore the Dragon Boat Festival is also celebrated as ‘Poet’s Day’ in the Republic of China. In China, typical activities during the celebrations include racing dragon boats, drinking realgar wine (xionghuangjiu), eating rice dumplings (zongzi) amongst other activities. During this year’s celebration in Malawi, about 220 people attended the celebrations and these included KCN students and members of staff, Honorable Ministers from various Malawi government ministries and personnel from Chinese, Japanese, and Tanzania high commissions. Some of the high profile guests at this event included His Worship, Willie Chapondera (Mayor of Lilongwe), Honorable Dr Emmanuel Fabiano (Minister of Education, ), Honorable Aggrey C. Masi (Deputy Minister of Defence), Victoria Mwangaseke (Tanzania High Commissioner to Malawi) and Majorie Nakaponda (Zambian Deputy High Commissioner) among others. One of the activities during the festival was a raffle draw competition and the first prize winner walked away with the Huawei P9 mobile phone that was donated by the Malawi Huawei company. Second prize walked away with the Huawei Mate 7 that was donated by the Chinese Embassy.