Dumpling Festival, in Chinese is called Duan Wu Jie or Wu Yue Jie (The 5th Mth Festival).

In this day, all the chinese will prepare Rice Dumpling to worship their ancestors and Deities at home.

This is to show our form of respect to the Deities and gratitude to our ancestors.

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In Spore, we dont have a official claimed Holiday for this festival, but in other chinese countries, they do have big celebration for it.

Usually celebrations include, Dragon Boat Competitions, Wrapping of Dumplings, etc.

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What favours of Dumplings that you can find in Spore?

Here's a few:

1. Traditional Pork Dumpling (in hokkien, we called it "Giam Zhang")

Usually got Salted Egg Yolk, "Fat" pork meat, Chestnut, Mushrooms.

2. Nonya Dumpling

Usually the Dumpling's fillings are minced meat, seasoned with the 5 spice powders.

Taste a bit sweet and not that oily.

3. Kee Zhang (Vegetarian)

Usually got no filling, Red Bean filling, Dou Sha fillings, etc.

For those who worship Buddhism Deities at home, usually will get these Dumplings.

4. Expensive Dumplings:

~ Abalone Dumpling
~ Sharkfin Dumpling
~ Birdnest Dumpling
~ Peking Duck Dumpling

Seldom people will got these dumplings for offering to Deities, sound a bit "Guai Guai".. :P

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival aka Duan Wu Jie or Wu Yue Jie

The Dragon Boat Festival is a lunar holiday, occurring on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.

The boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival are traditional customs to attempts to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Chinese citizens now throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. Therefore the fish could eat the rice rather than the hero poet. This later on turned into the custom of eating tzungtzu and rice dumplings.

The celebration's is a time for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year. It is done so by different practices such as hanging healthy herbs on the front door, drinking nutritious concoctions, and displaying portraits of evil's nemesis, Chung Kuei. If one manages to stand an egg on it's end at exactly 12:00 noon, the following year will be a lucky one.

But since some of the well-known traditions of the festival already existed even before Qu Yuan, other origins of the festival were also suggested. Wen Yiduo suggested that the festival may be associated with dragon closely because two of the most important activities of the festival, dragon boat racing and eating zongzi, are related to dragon. Another view is that the festival is originated from the taboo of evil days. The fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar is traditionally considered an evil month and the 5th of the month is particularly a bad day, so a lot of taboo had been developed.

Most likely, the festival was gradually derived from all of the suggestions and the story of Qu Yuan is certainly the driving power to make it a great festival today.

Like other Chinese festivals, there is also a legend behind the festival. Qu Yuan served in the court of Emperor Huai during the Warring States (475 - 221 BC). He was a wise and erudite man. His ability and fight against corruption antagonized other court officials. They exerted their evil influence on the Emperor, so the Emperor gradually dismissed Qu Yuan and eventually exiled him. During his exile, Qu Yuan did not give up. He traveled extensively, taught and wrote about his ideas. His works, the Lament (Li Sao), the Nine Chapters (Jiu Zhang), and Wen tian, are masterpieces and invaluable for studying ancient Chinese culture. He saw the gradual decline of his mother country, the Chu State. And when he heard that the Chu State was defeated by the strong Qin State, he was so despaired that he ended his life by flinging himself into the Miluo River.

Legend says after people heard he drowned, they were greatly dismayed. Fishermen raced to the spot in their boats to search for his body. Unable to find his body, people threw zongzi, eggs and other food into the river to feed fish, so hoped to salvage his body. Since then, people started to commemorate Qu Yuan through dragon boat races, eating zongzi and other activities, on the anniversary of his death, the 5th of the fifth month.

Zongzi is the most popular food for the festival. Zongzi is a special kind of dumpling. It is usually made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. Fresh bamboo leaves are the best for the wrapping since the taste and smell of the fresh bamboo leaves is part of zongzi. Unfortunately fresh bamboo leaves are hard to find.

Today you may see zongzi in different shapes and with a variety of fillings. The most popular shapes are triangular and pyramidal. The fillings include dates, meat, yolk of egg, etc. The most popular fillings are dates. The festival is closely associated with zongzi and dragon boat races. More importantly this is also a national patriot festival through commemorating the great patriot poet, Qu Yuan. People are reminded that the importance of loyalty and commitment to the community in the festival.

Nowadays, ppl will pray anything, for luck? or just because they like to eat these things (whatever it is). I've seen ppl pray Natoh gong with durians! :rolleyes: