Tuesday, June 22, 2004
The Dumpling or Dragon Boat Festival
Today (Tuesday 22 June 2004) is the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Lunar calendar. Today the Chinese around the world celebrate the Dumpling Festival.
According to the Chinese culture and traditions, the Dumpling Festival is one of the three important festivals celebrated by the Chinese community. The other two important annual festivals are the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) and the Mid-Autumn Festival (or the Moon Cake Festival).
To celebrate this Dumpling Festival, the Chinese make dumplings (or “Zong Zi” in Chinese) from glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. The dumpling is made by placing a spoonful of glutinous rice onto two bamboo leaves. Then other ingredients are added into the rice. These may include roast pork, black mushrooms, chestnuts and salted eggs. Each dumpling is wrapped individually and tied as a group. The dumplings are placed into boiling water and cooked for about two hours. The dumplings can be eaten hot or cold and they can be kept for a few days. So the dumpling was ideal for travellers in the ancient times.
The Dumpling Festival is known “Duan Wu Jie” in Chinese. During the festival period, Dragon Boat Races are held where there are Chinese community. Actually, the festival is meant to commemorate a patriot and great poet by the name of “Qu Yuan’ who was a minister to a King of Chu Kingdom in China in around 340 BC.
Qu Yuan was a good minister and was very popular with the people. However, the King late listened to other evil ministers and lost faith in him. Eventually, he was banished by the King. Without Qu Yuan’s advice, the King was finally defeated by another King known as “Qin Shi Huang” from the neighbouring Qin Kingdom. (Qin Shi Huang later became the first emperor of China.)
Qu Yuan was very sad. On the fifth day of the fifth month, he tied himself with a piece of rock and jumped into a river and drowned. The villages were worried that the fishes might eat his body remain, so they threw rice into the river to feed the fishes so the fished would not nibble on the remains of Qu Yuan. To prevent the rice from dispersing quickly and carried away by the current, the villages wrapped the rice in bamboo leaves. That was the beginning of the rice dumpling. At the same time, the villages also row out their boats and beat drums to scare off the fishes. That was the beginning of the dragon boat races.
Today eating rice dumplings is more like a traditional practice of culture, and dragon boat races have spread round the world to become a sporting event.
The below picture shows the dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.
This is another picture showing the dumplings with the bamboo leaves removed
The below picture shows the dragon boat race in Sydney Darling Harbour.
According to the Chinese culture and traditions, the Dumpling Festival is one of the three important festivals celebrated by the Chinese community. The other two important annual festivals are the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) and the Mid-Autumn Festival (or the Moon Cake Festival).
To celebrate this Dumpling Festival, the Chinese make dumplings (or “Zong Zi” in Chinese) from glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. The dumpling is made by placing a spoonful of glutinous rice onto two bamboo leaves. Then other ingredients are added into the rice. These may include roast pork, black mushrooms, chestnuts and salted eggs. Each dumpling is wrapped individually and tied as a group. The dumplings are placed into boiling water and cooked for about two hours. The dumplings can be eaten hot or cold and they can be kept for a few days. So the dumpling was ideal for travellers in the ancient times.
The Dumpling Festival is known “Duan Wu Jie” in Chinese. During the festival period, Dragon Boat Races are held where there are Chinese community. Actually, the festival is meant to commemorate a patriot and great poet by the name of “Qu Yuan’ who was a minister to a King of Chu Kingdom in China in around 340 BC.
Qu Yuan was a good minister and was very popular with the people. However, the King late listened to other evil ministers and lost faith in him. Eventually, he was banished by the King. Without Qu Yuan’s advice, the King was finally defeated by another King known as “Qin Shi Huang” from the neighbouring Qin Kingdom. (Qin Shi Huang later became the first emperor of China.)
Qu Yuan was very sad. On the fifth day of the fifth month, he tied himself with a piece of rock and jumped into a river and drowned. The villages were worried that the fishes might eat his body remain, so they threw rice into the river to feed the fishes so the fished would not nibble on the remains of Qu Yuan. To prevent the rice from dispersing quickly and carried away by the current, the villages wrapped the rice in bamboo leaves. That was the beginning of the rice dumpling. At the same time, the villages also row out their boats and beat drums to scare off the fishes. That was the beginning of the dragon boat races.
Today eating rice dumplings is more like a traditional practice of culture, and dragon boat races have spread round the world to become a sporting event.
The below picture shows the dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.
This is another picture showing the dumplings with the bamboo leaves removed
The below picture shows the dragon boat race in Sydney Darling Harbour.
