As the Duanwu Festival falls on June 19th this year, I can't stop pondering, "Do we still have the same festival fun as our ancestors?"

Ask a passerby in Beijing's street, and you will probably get the answer, "I will eat zongzi today." The glutinous rice dumplings with various kinds of fillings are the first thing and perhaps, the only thing, many Chinese people now think of when the festival arrives. But is that all? Nowadays, as in any other metropolis, we can avail ourselves of all kinds of food everyday, not just on holidays. So, what makes this festival so special that the Chinese have observed it for more than 2,000 years?

Poet's Day

When eating zong zi, a vague image of a thin and troubled poet emerges in my mind's eye. Though the exact origin of the festival has lost in history, it is traditionally said that the day is to commemorate a patriotic poet and banished aristocrat: Qu Yuan.

On May 5th of 278 B.C. (counting by the lunar calendar), the desperate poet, learning of the capture of his country's capital, committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River of today's Hunan Province, as his protest of the dark era.

The locals raced to search for his body in boats and beat drums to scare the fish and evil spirits away from his body. When all efforts failed, they wrapped rice in three-cornered packages and threw them into the water as a food offering to Qu Yuan. Since then, every year on the day of the poet's death, people pay tribute to him by keeping the tradition of dragon boat races and eating the must-have food known as zong zi.

All rights reserved. Reproduction of text for non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that both the source and author are acknowledged and a notifying email is sent to us.