Dumpling Festival - Duan Wu Festival

Duan Wu Festival is either called Dragon Boast festival or Chinese Dumpling festival.

The festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th Lunar month and this year it is on the 23rd of June.

Duan Wu Festival is said to commemorate the sacrifice of Qu Yuan, a legendary Chinese poet. In Mi Lo River around 2000 years ago, he drowned himself to protest against the rulers and to stop corruption.The towns folk searched the river in Dragon boats for his body and banging the drums to scare the fish away. They also threw dumplings into the river to stop fish from feeding on the poet’s body.

The dumplings that are thrown into the river and also eaten at this time of the year are called Zong zi or simply Zong.

 Zong zi is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling.

Each year restaurants come up with new fillings to put in these dumplings and some of the fillings include Lotus seeds, peanuts, black eyed peas, pork and salted egg. This year brown rice has also been used to make the dumplings for the more health conscious. 

My favourite is the traditional Nyonya filling which consists of pork and mushrooms.

Qu Yuan

 Zong zi ready to buy

 Zong zi ready to eat

Some things just make you laugh

Throughout Asia, Asian women try not to let the sun darken their skin and can be seen walking with umbrellas to shield the sun and also driving with long gloves on to protect the arm closest to the car window.
The department stores are filled with beauty products that whiten the skin and all moisturizers contain skin whitening ingredients.
This woman was taking extreme measures while swimming in the pool in our apartment complex and it made me laugh.
The shield is an UV face shield.