Just now mummy brought me over to Great Granny's (Tai Ma) place to take dumplings. She made them by herself every year & distributed to all relatives & friends. Ever since last week, she has made over 100 dumplings and still our relatives say not enuff. So last night, Great Granny made another 100 & called Mummy to go over to collect. i had 1 dumpling for lunch.Yummy! i wanna hv another one for dinner also but Mummy say i cannot eat too much cos its made of glutinous rice & nt gd for my digestion. But hor...i will give Mummy a sweet smile first & then i'm sure she will give me one. Hehe...
There is a legend behind the Dragon Boat Festival or Dumpling Festival:
Duan Wu Jie is on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar calendar (usually June in the calendar we use now). It is a day to remember the poet Qu Yuan, who was a loyal official in the court of the Chu Kingdom in old China. Other officials told the emperor lies about Qu Yuan. The weak emperor believed the evil officials and asked Qu Yuan to leave his court. Over the next 20 years, the Chu kingdom got weaker. Qu Yuan was very sad that his beloved country was controlled by another country, the Qin Kingdom. He decided to end his life by jumping into the river. Fishermen who heard that Qu Yuan drowned himself in the river set sail on boats to look for his body. When they could not find it, they threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river so that the fish in the river would eat the rice instead of his body. The traditions of dragon boat races and eating rice dumplings on Duan Wu Jie thus began.
