It’s the Dragon Boat Festival, and to celebrate, Mandarin students from Years 7-9 have been making Zong Zi! Zong Zi is a traditional Chinese food most popular during the Dragon Boat festival. It consists of glutinous sticky rice, bamboo leaves and either sweet or savoury fillings.
History
The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival that falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month (late May or early June in the Gregorian calendar); it commemorates ‘Qu Yuan’, a famous Chinese poet. The story goes that Qu Yuan was accused of treason and was exiled. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of Chu, causing Qu Yuan to drown himself in the Miluo River. People rushed out into the river on their boats to search for him, others threw rice dumplings (jiao shu) into the river to prevent fish from eating his body.
Tradition
Nowadays, people celebrate it as an annual festival by hosting Dragon Boat races and making sticky rice dumplings (Zong Zi) with family or friends. In Hubei province, a large and competitive dragon boat race is held during the festival. Dragon boat races aren’t just held in China, in fact, they are held as an international sporting event in around 85 countries around the world.