Around the 2023 Dragon Boat Festival, the Greater Princeton Branch of AYLUS (GPA) performed another DIY Production to Save a Life.
When Dragon Boat Festival comes around, the food that (Chinese) people think of most is zongzi: sticky rice dumplings. It is an important part of the festival, just like turkey is at Christmas.
That’s why the Dragon Boat Festival is sometimes called the Zongzi Festival or Rice Dumpling Festival.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Jie — Start-of the-Fifth-Solar-Month Festival), which falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in the Chinese calendar, zongzi or sticky rice dumplings are everywhere. People make zongzi and pass them out as gifts, or receive them, and eat them.
Zongzi are “packets” of sticky rice with different fillings, wrapped in bamboo leaves or reed leaves. Zongzi appear in different shapes, according to different customs across China and in other countries. They are usually triangles (rounded semi-regular tetrahedrons or triangular-based pyramids) or rectangles (pillow shapes).
Zongzi differ in taste from one place to another across China. There are mainly two tastes to zongzi: sweet or savory. But nowadays, people even make zongzi with mixed sweet and savory fillings. See Regional Varieties of Zongzi below.
Why Do People Eat Zongzi at the Dragon Boat Festival?
Qu Yuan’s Story
The best known story in China to explain the legendary origin of eating zongzi at the Dragon Boat Festival is Qu Yuan’s story. Qu Yuan was a patriotic poet of the state of Chu during the Warring States Period (475–221 BC).
Qu Yuan was the number one advisor of the Kingdom of Chu, and dedicated his whole life to assisting the king to build the State of Chu stronger.
When he opposed the king’s plans to ally with the state of Qin, he was exiled. In his exiled days, he still cared much for his country and people and composed immortal poems including Li Sao (The Lament), which had far-reaching influences.
When the capital of Chu was conquered by the state of Qin, Qu Yuan committed suicide in the Miluo River on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.
Qu’s body could not be found, so local people dropped jiaoshu (horn-shaped sticky rice dumplings) into the river. They hoped the fish would eat the rice rather than the poet’s body. From then on, zongzi (the popular version of jiaoshu) have become an integral part of the Dragon Boat Festival.
On Saturday 6/24, GPA members made hundreds of Dragon Boat Festival Dumplings and gave them to those who supported AYLUS with orders.
GPA Volunteers (6/24, 2 hrs): Grant Li, Garland Li, Keefer Kohli, Joey Deng, Maxwell Mao, Andrew Huan, Hobart Wu, Adrian Zhang, Yilia Zhang, Richard Da, Jeffrey Jiang, Amy Fang Xie
