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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment