The Three Major Chinese Holidays - Dragon Boat Festival
Monday, October 12, 2009
Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar. It is a traditional and public holiday in Taiwan, and is also known by the Mandarin name Du¨¡nw¨³ Ji¨¦. Today this is best known as it relates to the suicide in 278 B.C.E. of Qu Yuan, a poet and statesman. In Dragon Boat Festival, there are several dragon boat races in Taiwan or in some Asian countries. Students can form a team and participate in the activity. My school, National Yilan Senior High School, team just won the championship of the teenage competition. We also play a funny game, Standing Egg. This game is played at noon. We take an egg and try to make it stand on the floor without any support. If you¡¯re successful, you will be lucky for the year. We also have some unusual food for this important festival. The most popular dish during Dragon Boat Festival is Zongzi, which is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings like meat, mushrooms, dried scallop or egg yolks. This is then wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. My grandmother and aunts would begin to make Zongzi one week before the date. The Zongzi my grandmother makes are the most delicious they are even better than some famous restaurants!
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