HAPPY RICE DUMPLING FESTIVAL aka DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

RICE DUMPLING FESTIVAL or known as the Dragon Boat Festival.

Rice Dumpling or commonly called Zongzi is traditionally eaten during this festival which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.A little bit of history here, the festival is held to commemorate the death of a famous Chinese poet called Qu Yuan.

Apparently this guy lived during the Warring States period which if I am not mistaken is the period of war. So, known for his patriotism, he is against his country’s ambition to expand and conquer the Qin country. Oh, did I mention this guy is from Chu country? So, War it is with Chu country on the losing side.

Legend has it that, this Qu Yuan guy committed suicide when the Chu country King does not take heed of his advice. Sad, disappointed and angry at the corrupted withering country, this guy tied himself to a big rock and threw himself into the river.
(Don’t ask me how this guy supposed to tie himself to a BIG rock then proceed to throw himself to a river….I don’t know….seriously….I suspected homicide..=p)

Then the Chu people come to know this and made rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw the dumplings into the river.

( How come people always get famous only after they died???? =p)

By doing this, they hope that the fish would eat the dumplings and not Qu Yuan’s body and tadaaaa we have Rice Dumpling Festival.And oh, not to mention some extreme ones even row down stream in a boat, beating drums and shouting real loud hoping to scare the fish away, hence the name Dragon Boat Festival. =P

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Anyway, that is the more common story; I heard another version of how the Rice Dumpling Festival comes to be. Legend has it that, there is this man stranded on an island during a heavy storm and it just happened that on the island he is shipwrecked lives a big monkey like creature and it’s a female big monkey like creature…Lets name her SheMonkey.

Now, SheMonkey has been on the island for god knows how long and is lonely. She saved the man and since he is injured badly, slowly nurtured him back to health. When the man is healthy, he tries to get off the island but fails as there is no other way to leave the island. And of course there is this little problem of getting past the SheMonkey. She is BIG, remember?

As time passed, the SheMonkey got horny fell in love with the man and the man was raped they make love. Out of their passionate love, comes the hero of this story. Let’s call him Hero shall we? Now, although the genes are mixed, Hero looks very much like human only a little bit on the hairy side. Nevertheless, Hero is a handsome hairy baby boy.

To cut the long story short, one day Hero’s dad saw a ship passing by and without further ado quickly grab Hero and flee. Of course the SheMonkey’s monkeysense kicks into action and runs after his hubby and son but failed. Still persistent, she swims out to reach them and in the process drowned.

Fast forward many years ahead, Hero grew up to be quite the intelligent and handsome young man. He even succeeds in getting the top scholar in the country and became a powerful minister. This Hero, despite the hairiness is a very filial person and he always remembers SheMonkey although he was quite young when he left her.

Hero then decided to go back to the island to find his mother. (The father did not tell him she drowned…). He searched the whole island for her but failed. Then he decided to make thousands of rice dumplings and hang them all around the island just in case his mother comes back.

As he is leaving the island on the ship, suddenly he felt something and looked down at the sea and decided to throw the rest of the dumplings into the sea.
(Don’t ask me why…but he did throw em…and how can he prepare thousands of dumplings on the island with no inhibitants is really beyond me.....) =P

The people of his country come to know his story and hence forth the day, fifth day of the fifth moon in the Chinese calendar, they celebrate Rice Dumpling Festival.

HAPPY RICE DUMPLING FESTIVAL

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