How does Indonesia mark Dragon Boat Festival?
Peh Cun (Petjoen)
- Local date
- June 9, 2027
- When is it?
- The 5th day of the 5th lunar month (Go Gwe Ce Go)
Indonesia has dragon boats too, and not as a recent import: Peh Cun — written locally as Petjoen — is held on the Cisadane River in the city of Tangerang by the Cina Benteng, the Chinese community around the old Batavia fortress, on the same fifth day of the fifth lunar month. At the centre is a sacred boat unsealed only once a year: opened, bathed and blessed before any racing happens, alongside throwing rice dumplings into the river, standing eggs on end and releasing ducks. The Tangerang city government lists it among the city's intangible cultural heritage. Elsewhere on this page the comparison is one festival across countries; here it is one festival that travelled with people for three centuries.
What is this topic?
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a public holiday in both Taiwan and mainland China, while Japan moved the same 'fifth of the fifth' onto the Gregorian calendar and turned it into a statutory children's day. This page compares four things: who gets the day off, where the rice dumplings and the boats sit, how far local versions are listed as heritage in their own right, and how the day was re-defined in Japan as respecting a child's character while also thanking the mother.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.