Rice Dumpling/Dragon Boat Race Festival
Today is the official holiday of Rice Dumpling/Dragon Boat Race Festival (Duan Wu Jie) is a popular celebrated festival in Chinese culture. This day is to pay respect to the well known poet, Qu Yuan. The story goes that Qu Yuan was loyal to the emperor of Chu dynasty though the emperor did not take any of his advise and eventually the enemies captured the emperor and the land was taken away.
Qu Yuan was upset and angry at the dying country, he committed suicide by jump into the River. Many local people loved Qu Yuan
and started to dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish so the fish will not eat Qu Yuan's body in the river.
Many people would row down stream in a boat, create a lot of noise and beating drums loudly to try to scare the fish away, and this started the tradition of Dragon Boat race festival.
In Modern days, now people eat many Zongzi around this holiday. Zongzi is made of sticky rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. If you see a zongzi next time you are in a Chinese restaurant or store, order a zongzi and now that you know the story.
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