Dragon Boat Festival

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 was Dragon Boat Festival, or Duan Wu Jie, one of thre three biggest holidays celebrated in China. It falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar and is therefore also sometimes called the Double Fifth Festival. This festival is actually celebrated to mourn for a man who died more than 2000 years ago (278BC)! He was Qu Yuan, a poet, writer, a patriotic officer who challenged corruption, and was very popular with the common people. When the Dynasty he served was defeated, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the river. Supposedly, the people hurried out on the river in their boats, beating drums to scare away the fish and feeding Zong zi to those that wouldn't be scared away so that they wouldn't eat Qu Yuan's body.
Today, people celebrate with dragon boat races, beating drums in the boats, and by eating zong zi. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any races, but we did eat some zong zi! Zong zi is sticky rice with some type of filling, shaped in sort of a pyramid and wrapped in either bamboo or corn leaves or reeds. We had bought some at the store which I think had the red bean filling and were somewhat sweet. Ace also gave us two kinds, one also was sweet , the other was meat filled, but we weren't crazy about it.
Leah and I researched the Dragon Boat Festival and I gave her the choice of a project to make, so she designed a dragon mask for her Littlest Pet Shop kitty! She did a great job!

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Photos

Zong zi
This is right after they were boiled

Zong zi
Unwrapping, can you make out the pyramid type shape?

Zong zi
Unwrapped

Zong zi
Cut open, ready to eat, this was the sweet filling

Leah's dragon
This is the dragon mask that Leah designed for her Littlest Pet Shop kitty

Large Zong Zi shaped balloons
These were along People's Square in Shanghai

Dragon prow on a kiddie ride
This is the type of head that would be on a dragon boat. This was in People's Square in Shanghai.

Comments

[Jimmie]

zong zi balloons!
Those balloons are wonderful! I love zong zi, but I prefer them savory. Where I live, people like them sweet. Thanks for sharing this wonderful info about Dragon Boat Festival. My city, although on a big river, had NO dragon boat racing. What a shame. These cultural elements are slowly being lost.

[Jimmie]

oops forgot to say
Do you think you ate a taro? It's sort of gray to purple? It's super starchy like a potato. But who knows. China has such a wealth of amazing produce!