The Rice Dumpling Festival or Duanwu Festival is also referred to as
the Dragon Boat Festival. Literally, Duanwu means solar maximus which is
the longest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere), and when the
sun is at its highest point in the sky of the day (i.e. noon; on the
fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar hence also the "Double Fifth
Festival, which falls on May 28 for year 2009).
It is a traditional celebration by most Asians of the Chinese
origin to commemorate the drowning suicide of Qu Yuan, a well-respected ancient Chinese scholar
and minister to a king in the Chinese history. It is said that the noise
from the drums by the dragon boat teams are to chase away the sea
creatures from eating Qu Yuan's body; and rice wrapped in bamboo leaves
thrown into the river to feed the fish, also to "preserve" his body,
which is the legendary origin of the rice dumplings ("zongzi" in
Mandarin).
Glutinous rice is the key ingredient of rice dumpling, originally
plain or with savory fillings, wrapped mainly with bamboo leaves into
the common triangular shape with trilateral base. Over centuries, rice
dumpling has taken much evolution in its shapes, ingredients and taste;
variations in shape include quadrilateral base, cylinder, phoenix tail,
rectangular, cone, and round. Besides bamboo leaves, other substitutes
used in the recent years include the leaves of lotus, maize, banana, canna, shell ginger, pandanus (screwpine); more unusual endeavors being
nori sheets, outer layer of maize or banana buds, and even hollowed
bamboo sticks. Rice dumplings are usually steamed or boiled.
Indulge yourself with the selected list of mouthwatering dumplings!