The week of celebration opens this Monday 22nd with an activity that integrates painting, handicrafts and gastronomy. The idea is to make artistic compositions with fruits and vegetables on the plate of a panda eating bamboo.

On Tuesday 23rd the children's pupils will have the opportunity to practice, from their homes, the art of kung fu. In this activity they will be able to practice aspects of the millenary tradition of martial arts. Thursday 25th will be dedicated, exclusively, to the celebration of the Dragon Boats, and drawings will be made on hard boiled eggs with parsley. Finally, the week of activities will end on Friday 26th with the construction of a boat and a paper fan. Paper that can be easily folded, glue and scissors for children should be available. 

The Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most important festivals in the traditional Chinese calendar, along with the Spring Festival (New Year) and the Mid-Autumn Festival. It takes place on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and in its celebration dragon boats are thrown into the river or the sea. The figure of the poet Qu Yuan (340-278 B.C.) is thus honoured, who tied a stone around his neck and threw himself into the river. The people, who came to help him with the boats even though they could not save him, wanted to preserve his body by throwing balls of glutinous rice (zongzi) so that the fish would eat this food and not the unhappy poet.

With this week of celebrations, the ICUV hopes that its activities and initiatives to spread the Chinese language and culture will not be interrupted, despite the measures that have had to be taken due to the health crisis. Since mid-March, all its classes at different levels have been converted to the online format, which has been very well received by students and teachers. Even the traditional Chinese Bridge contest was held remotely through the screens of the various devices with Internet  connection.