Dragon Boat Festival

Happy Dragon Boat Festival! Have you grab your glutinous dumpling? On this memorable day, let’s cherish the memory of our Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan who jumped into the Mi Luo river in order to protest against injustice and corruption. Here is the full story of the history and origin of this memorable Dragon Boat Festival.

The Dumpling Festival

The Dumpling Festival ("Duan Wu Jie") is a colorful festival celebrated by Chinese worldwide on the 5th day of the 5th month of lunar calendar. It is a yearly event and during this day, the Chinese will commonly feast on dumplings (which we called "zong zi" in Chinese).

The Origin

The Dumpling Festival has a legend behind it. The story goes like this… …

Once upon a time, there was a Chinese patriotic poet by the name of "Qu Yuan" who serve the emperor in Chu Kingdom in ancient China. He was a good minister and was well loved by the people. However, bad evil court officials were jealous of Qu Yuan's abilities and they successfully influenced the weak-minded emperor to dismiss and exile him.

The Tragedy

Picture illustration of Qu Yuan
Feeling disheartened and angry, Qu Yuan tied himself to a rock and jumped into the Mi Luo river in Hunan province in order to protest against injustice and corruption. When the people get to know of his death, they rowed their boats to the river to look for his body. When they failed to find his body, they started beating their drums and making loud noises nearby the river hoping to scare the fishes and sea creatures away so that they will not feed on his body. Others started making rice dumplings to throw into the river believing that the sea creatures and fishes will eat their dumplings instead of Qu Yuan's body. It might be a naive belief, but the emotions were heartfelt and sincere.

Since then, the 5th day of the 5th month of lunar calendar was set as "Duan Wu Jie" (i.e. Dumpling Festival), to commemorate the incident.                                    

The Traditions

Keeping this occasion in mind, every year during the 5th day of the 5th month, the Chinese worldwide celebrated the Dumpling Festival. In the modern world today, "zong zi" are no longer thrown into rivers, but people still eat them as a holiday tradition and testament to Qu Yuan's self-determination.

During this day, it is also a tradition to organize the yearly dragon boat races and to eat dumplings. The dragon boat races are known to represent the search for the poet's body and is a popular event in countries like China, Taiwan, Singapore and so on. It is also a common practice to exchange dumplings (either self-made or bought) amongst close friends and relatives. 

More About "Zong Zi"

"Zong Zi" is a traditional Chinese food that is glutinous rice with some sort of filling (usually water chestnuts, Chinese black mushrooms, cooked peanuts, dried shrimp and meat) wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed. Nowadays, there is infused creativity into the dumplings-making, as can be seen with the many different types of dumplings available in the market.

Aside from the regular version with beef and pork, there is also a seafood version with shrimp and crab. In addition to that, there is also a sweet version coated in something similar to honey and stuffed with red bean paste. A vegetarian version of it is also available, stuffed with some sort of pickled vegetables. You will be spoiled for choice if you are a dumpling-lover, seriously!

Now, do you have a more refined idea about the origin of the Dumpling Festival?

Credit to http://dumplingfestival.weebly.com/history.html