Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Jie in Mandarin Chinese, is a public holiday on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which this year is today, May 28. There are three main traditions associated Duanwu Jie: reading poetry, eating rice dumplings, and racing dragon boats (hence the English name for this holiday).There are a number of theories about Duanwu Jie's origins, but the best known story today relates to the poet and stateman Qu Yuan, who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month when the state of Qin conquered the Chu capital. It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. This is the origin of zongzi, the rice dumplings that are this holiday's traditional food. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
We didn't read any of Qu Yuan's poetry today or watch any dragon boat racing, but we did try some rice dumplings. They can be sweet or salty and flavored with meat, egg yolks, peanuts, bean paste, or dried fruit. They are very, very sticky and come wrapped in bamboo leaves and tied with string. Benjamin brought one home from the cafeteria when he went to go pick up dinner. Seth seemed pretty interested in the packaging and was probably hoping that there was ice cream inside; he tried a few bites, but he didn't fall in love with it. Thankfully Daddy brought some ice cream home, too!
