A Quick Glance
Name: Dragon Boat Festival, Duan Wu Jie (Chinese)
Date: the 5th of the fifth month in Chinese lunar calendar
Legend: a great patriot poet, Qu Yuan
Food: zongzi
More information:
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa052998.htm
www.dragonboat.net
www.dragonboat.org.nz
www.dragoncup.com
Qu Yuan Qu Yuan served in the court of Emperor Huai during the time of the Warring States (475 - 221 BC). He fought against corruption in the court. His actions made other court officials so upset that they convinced the Emperor to exile Qu Yuan; however, Qu Yuan did not give up. He traveled and taught about his ideas. His work, including the Lament (Li Sao), the Nine Chapters (Jiu Zhang), and Wen tian, strongly influenced ancient Chinese culture. After learning that the Chu state - his mother country - was defeated by the Qin State, he was so depressed that he ended his life by flinging himself into the Miluo River.
Legend says that after he ended his life, people were greatly dismayed. Fishermen raced to the location of his death in their boats to search for his body. Unable to find his body, people threw zongzi, eggs and other food into the river to feed the fish in hopes of salvaging his body. Since then, people started to commemorate Qu Yuan by holding dragon boat races, eating zongzi and performing other activities on the anniversary of his death, the fifth day of the fifth month.
Zongzi Zongzi is a special kind of Chinese dumpling. It is made from glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. The smell and the taste of fresh bamboo leaves is part of zongzi. Today, there is zongzi in different shapes and various fillings. The most common shape is the triangle. Fillings can be Chinese dates, meats, or yolks, etc.