Duan Wu Jie (端午節) - Rice Dumpling Festival

Duan Wu Jie (端午節) is also related to the Dragon Boat event and is a widely celebrated festival amongst the Chinese, to pay respect to the patriotic poet, Qu Yuan Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) (pronounced as Chue Yuan). Qu Yuan was an important minister back in Chu Kingdom in ancient China. He had been known for his loyalty for the emperor of Chu, and loved his country greatly. However, The emperor had not taken Qu Yuan's advice seriously, and he eventually got himself trapped and captured in a foreign land by his enemies, which then lead to his own death. Qu Yuan tied himself to a big rock and threw himself into the River of Puo Luo. The people then made rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river. They believed this would stop the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body. Some would even row down stream in a boat, beating drums and shouting out loud in the hope to scare the fish away , this is how the Dragon Boat event comes into place. This incident happened on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese lunar calendar thus this date has been set as Duan Wu Festival to remember the incident. This year the date is on Monday, 2 June 2014.



The rice dumplings (ZongZi) are glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, or other large leaves (lotus is one of the more commonly used leaves). You can find all sorts of different fillings in the rice: pork, roast pork, chestnut, egg, salted egg, mushroom, red bean, or just simply without filling. They could be just white rice dumpling (not pre-fried), or brown (pre-fried with soya sauce).





Community centres and RCs also celebrating these festival in various ways: organising outing to view dragon boat racing at reservoirs and Singapore river, some even organise classes to teach participants how to wrap and make rice dumplings. Owen RC have organised the'hand-on' rice dumpling making - ''on-the-job'' training concept.

Nowadays, you can buy Zongzi almost everyday of the year, in restaurants or hawker stalls in Singapore, not need to wait for the festive season to taste these rice dumplings.

Today the Dragon Boat Festival has evolved into a respected international sport. In Singapore, the festival is a noted tourist event and competitors from the Asian region and throughout the world participate in the annual race. Tied to the event are fundraising and community work, following in the same vein of patriot Qu Yuan who contributed his life as a sacrifice for his country.