Monday, June 6, 2011

Today is Dragon Boat Festival

Today is Dragon Boat Festival in China (端午节). People in China get a day off for the holiday. Here in the United States people don't get a day off. I have a day off, because school is out, but I still have homework to do.

In this traditional Chinese holiday, we are supposed to eat Zong Zi (rice dumpling). But we didn't eat Zong Zi, because my mom ate the only Zong Zi we had a few days ago. So when my dad and I looked for the Zong Zi in the refrigerator, we couldn't find any.

Another thing people do in this holiday is to hold dragon boat races. There was a guy named Qu Yuan. He was a famous poet. He killed himself by jumping into a river because his country was destroyed by the enemy. A lot of people liked him. So they rowed their boats in the river looking for his body. They were afraid that fish might eat the man's body, so they made Zong Zi and threw them into the river to feed the fish, so the fish would leave the man's body alone. That was where the idea of Zong Zi and Dragon Boat Race came from. Nowadays, people just eat Zong Zi themselves and then race Dragon Boats for fun.

Qu Yuan, the Poet

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