Duan Wu Jie

For those who may not be aware of this historical background, the story goes like this.........

This festival honours a patriotic poet and loyal official named Qu Yuan. His death is commemorated each year on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Lunar calendar, usually in June by the Dragon boat and Dumpling Festival.

According to ancient legend, Qu Yuan was a loyal court official in the court of the Chu Kingdom in old China, he was extremely capable and many of the other court officials were jealous of him, they plotted against him and he was dismissed from court.

Over the next 20 years, the Chu kingdom got weaker, he was very sad that his beloved country was invaded by another country, the Qin Kingdom and that the people were suffering a lot of hardships.

Feeling depressed that his country had come to such a state of destruction, the wise and honest Qu Yuan threw himself into the Ni Luo River and drowned in protest against corruption and injustice.

Qu Yuan was greatly respected by the people because of his love for his country and its people.

 

When they learnt of his death, they set out boats to look for his body. The fishermen furiously beat drums, gongs and cymbals in their desperate attempt to scare away the fishes. They beat the waters furiously with their paddles and threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves (rice dumplings) into the river for the fishes and other sea creatures to feed on instead of devouring their hero's body.

Thus the Pyramid shaped dumplings made of glutinous rice known as Rice Dumplings (Zong Zi) are eaten to mark the festival and the legend of local fishermen racing out to save Qu Yuan is re-enacted in the form of Dragon Boat Races along the rivers and coasts as what we see today.