The festival originated in ancient China and commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BCE) of the ancient state of Chu. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices however, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance; he was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the capital of Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat Qu Yuan's body and eat the rice instead. This is said to be the origin of zongzi (rice dumplings). The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
Our zongzi efforts
What day is complete without a few hundred Jiaozi?!
As with most things Chinese, Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated with food. The traditional foods for this festival are zongzi and (yay!) jiaozi. I was extremely fortunate to be invited along with Jana and Glenn to spend the day with our friend and Chinese teacher Mei, and her family.
A market on the drive out to Punan.
No idea why this video is sideways. 'Pologies.
Mei's family home
The chicken, ducks, pigs and most veg, nuts and herbs are grown here and the families are against using chemicals, so I tucked into most of the food as for the first time in a long while I wasn't worried about what I was eating.
Mei, her son and her mum.
Mei's sister-in-law who's a demon with a rolling pin/cleaver combo. Be nice...
Preparing the dough for the jiaozi
Making a very skilled technique look easy.
The speed at which the perfectly formed dough was being produced was, quite frankly, insane. A one-woman production line.
Dad showing us how it's done.
We were given a very warm welcome before getting straight down to work. In the truly communal spirit I have witnessed here time and again, the whole family got stuck in to making Jiaozi together while Grandma and Grandpa looked on in amusement. Mei's mum was in charge of the kitchen, her uncle was producing the most extravagant dishes, her dad and brother-in-law were ensuring everyone had drinks, and were also advising on different ways to seal the Jiaozi, the ladies were all busy with the dumplings while the kids played around us.
Home grown nuts in sugar, tomatoes in sugar, fish in caramelised soy sauce, shrimp and garlic Jiaozi, chive and ginger Jiaozi, ssalty green beans in chilli, pork knuckles, chicken thighs, cucumber, peppers and watermelon salad, duck eggs, garlic mushrooms, spicy tofu..... and a whole bunch of other stuff to blow your gastro-mind.
Once seated, the food just kept coming and we were encouraged to eat as much as humanly possible. Another custom with all communal Chinese meals is to drink the dreaded baijiu or if you're lucky, as we were in this case, we could opt for hongjiu (red wine). The deal with the drinks is that The host will make the first toast. If it is to you, then you should respond with a toast to your host. Toasting will continue throughout the meal. Touching the other person's glass below the rim is a sign of respect. After the first toast and touching of the glasses, glasses are tapped on the table for the following toasts. Typical toasts are 'ji nin', which means you can take a sip from your drink ooooooor you announce 'Gan bei!' which means 'dry the cup' so you have to empty entire contents of the glass. In this instance there were eight people on our table. With each person toasting at least eight times, this is a lot of toasts... you get the picture. I have come a cropper several times through being gan bei'd to within an inch of my sanity. On this occasion we behaved fairly well and only managed to put away three glasses of wine.
As guests of honour we were seated facing north and were waited on by everyone.
In China a fish served whole is a symbol of prosperity. In fact, at a banquet it is customary to serve the whole fish last, pointed toward the guest of honour. Fish also has symbolic significance because the Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for riches or abundance, and it is believed that eating fish will help your wishes come true in the year to come.
Uh-oh...
After lunch we were shooed away so that the cleaning up could commence. Mei took us for a walk around her village to show us where she used to play as a child and also to show us the new house that her father is building for the whole family. The government is in the process of building all over the farmland with no compensation for any of the landowners who have been there for generations. This has resulted in a flurry of private building as a form of security for the future. The average Chinese person has no means of fighting a corrupt government so makes the most of the opportunities available.
The house that dad built
Signs wishing good fortune around the door frame. These are common, particularly on doorways and often get hung during Chinese New Year and remain up for twelve months. Most apartment doors have a tonne of these stuck all over them.
This chair was made for Mei by her dad, almost 30 years ago and is the first item of furniture to migrate over to the unfinished new home!
Mei's neighbour drying wheat on her yard. She'd never seen any foreigners before and announced that we looked exactly like the ones on tv. All of them.
When we returned we got to work on making zongzi. These are pockets of leaves harvested from the nearby field, that are woven together then packed with rice nuts and a honey date. They are then cooked in water for a few hours and are delicious. They are extremely tricky to make and judging by the laughter and the amount of water splashed all over ourselves, we were not exactly experts.
Leaves are left to soak for a few hours to make them pliable enough to weave into pockets for the zongzi.
The rice, nut and date filling.
The zongzi are put into water and boiled for a few hours before being eaten or distributed as gifts.
The day flew by and the three of us had been shown such warmth and generosity that we were all quite emotional by the end. This truly was a magical day and one I will not forget in a hurry.
Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
The aftermath.
Awesome photos kindly supplied by Jana and Glenn Everett
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