Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It was June 19th this year. It is an official Holiday in Hong Kong but not on the mainland (because of the 3 Golden weeks policy currently in place). I think it is also the only holiday in the world that is celebrated for a poet (well that is what was published by news sources in China. I should have researched this claim given the source. TOB pointed out Robbie Burns Day in Scotland where they celebrate their national poet by eating haggis).

The patriotic scholar-statesman Chu Yuan who drowned himself to protest against the emperor. Chu Yuan worked very hard to offer good counsel to the emperor but the emperor would not listen. People respected Chu Yuan. When they heard that he was drowned, they jumped on boats to search for him. This is a part of what the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates every year. Failing to find Chu Yuan, people hit drums and making loud noised hoping to scare the fish and won't touch Chu Yuan's body. People lived along the river also put cooked rice in the river as a sacrifice. But then they found that the fish got the rice so people wrapped the cooked rice in bamboo leaves. This evolved to present day's rice dumplings which is called zong zi.

A work colleague was gracious to make some zong zi for us. They were very tasty and sweet. Zong zi is a glutinous rice ball with a filling wrapped in corn leaves. The filling is usually red bean or meat.