Mandarin Chinese – How to say – On the day of Dragon Boat Festival, I am going to see dragon boat races and eat yummy rice dumplings.
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Dragon-Boat.mp3|titles=Dragon Boat]
端午節当天，我要去看龙船兢赛并吃好吃的粽子。duānwǔ jié dàngtiān , Wǒ yào qù kàn lóng chuánjīng sài bìng chī hǎo chīdezòngzi .
duānwǔ jié （節 jié means holiday, 端 duān means beginning, 午 wǔ the fifth month of lunar calendar is called 午月 wu yue, thus 午 wu means 五 wu; 端午節 duānwǔ jié means the holiday of the fifth day of the fifth month and thus, dragon boat festival) dàng (当 preposition, at (a time)) tiān (天 noun, day) , Wǒ (我 pronoun, I) yào (要 verb, want) qù (去 verb, go) kàn (看 verb, see) lóng chuán (龙船 noun phrase, dragon boat) jīng sài (兢赛 noun, competition or race) bìng (并 conjunction, and, as well as) chī (吃 verb, eat) hǎo chī (好吃adjective, delicious) de (的 particle to connect the attributive and the noun it modifies) zòngzi (粽子 noun, rice dumplings) .
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Dragon-Boat1.mp3|titles=Dragon Boat]
Dragon Boat Festival (龙船节 Lóng chuán jié)
The 5th day of the 5th month of Chinese lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, which also is known as Duanwu Festival 端午節 (duānwǔ Jié) as well as the Double Fifth. In the year of 2012, it will be on June 23. The holiday in China will be celebrated from June 22 to 24, 2012. For 2013, it will be on June 13. Other names for this holiday include: Duanwu Jie 端午節; in Cantonese, they call it – Tuen Ng Festival; in Hokkien speaking commnities, by the names Gō͘-go̍eh-cheh/Gō͘-ge̍h-choeh 五月節 (Wǔyuè Jié) and Gō͘-ji̍t-cheh/Gō͘-ji̍t-choeh 五日節 (Wǔ Rì Jié).
In 2008, this holiday was first officially recognized as a public holiday in mainland China since the 1940s. However, the festival has long been celebrated in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. In other parts of Asia, similar and related festivals include the Kodomo no hi in Japan, Dano in Korea, and Tết Đoan Ngọ in Vietnam.
Dragon Boat Festival is observed around the days when the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. The dragon is like the sun (阳 yang) represents masculine energy; on the contrary, the moon (月 yue), like the phoenix (firebird, 凤凰 fenghuang), is a symbol of feminine energy. For this reason, Duanwu is naturally associated with masculine energy and power.
屈原的故事 The story of Qu Yuan — the patriotic poet and statesman who drowned himself
The origin and customs of Dragon Boat Festival:
The festival commemorates the patriotic poet 屈原 Qu Yuan (c. 340 BCE – 278 BCE), poet and statesman of the Chu 楚 kingdom during the Warring States period, and the holiday is also a time for people to clean their households, strengthen their bodies and dispel diseases.
Qu Yuan was descendant of the Chu royal house and also served as a minister in the State of Chu. Chu was one of the seven warring states before 秦 Qin (221BC – 206BC). Qu Yuan supported the decision to fight against the powerful State of Qin (one of the seven states during the Warring States Period (476 BC – 221 BC). However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was slandered by the aristocrat 子兰 Zi Lan, and later was accused of treason and got banished for opposing the alliance. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry to express his love for his country. His works include 离骚 Li Sao (The Lament), 天问 Tian Wen (Asking Questions to the Heaven) and 九歌 Jiu Ge (Nine Songs), thus, Qu Yuan is now remembered as a great patriotic poet. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of Chu. In despair, after finishing his last masterpiece – 怀沙 Huai Sha (Embracing the Sand), Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the 汨罗 Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
On hearing of Qu Yuan’s tragedy, the local people, who greatly admired him, searched for his body by sailing their boats down the river; when the searching came out in vain, they dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves, the so called 粽子 zhòngzi （rice dumplings) into the river to feed fish and hope they would not eat away Qu Yuan’s body. Later, people in China, imitated these acts to show their respect for this great patriotic poet and so this practice continues till today.
A dragon boat or dragonboat is a human-powered watercraft originally made of teak wood, in the Pearl River delta region of southern China – Guangdong Province, with various designs and sizes. Dragonboat races are a team paddling sport which has its roots in an ancient folk ritual of competing villagers held over the past 2000 years throughout southern China. Dragon boat races are traditionally held as part of the annual Duanwu Festival.
Dragon boat racing and eating zòngzi have become the central customs of Dragon Boat festival. Besides these two, there are two other Dragon Boat Festival customs which are related to health. The hot weather during solstice period, used to make virus and germs grow rapidly and bring various diseases. Dispelling disease and driving out evil thus became two main purposes of the Dragon Boat Festival. People would paste on their front doors pictures of 鍾馗 Zhongkui, a legendary Chinese ghost-catcher, to scare evils away. On this holiday, Chinese people will also hang mugwort (艾蒿 Aì Hāo) and calamus (菖蒲 chāngpú) on the side of door or windows to drive away mosquitoes and other insects, wear perfumed medicine bags (香包 xiāng bāo ） to offer beneficial effect to health, and drink realgar wine （雄黄酒 xiónghuáng jiǔ, Chinese believed realgar was an antidote for all poisons) to drive away evil spirits and kill insects. All of these activities are meant to prevent disease and evil as well as promote health and well-being.
How to make 粽子 zhòngzi:
First, you need to buy bamboo leaves （竹叶 zhú yè ) and washed them. My mom used to buy them from stores, but if you do live near a bamboo forest, then you can go out and pick some:)
Next you need to have glutinous rice, in Chinese we call it 糯米 (Nuòmǐ). You have to soak it for hours, then you fry it and add spices and other ingredients like pork, shrimps, or peanuts. Next, you wrap them in bamboo leaves and tie them with thin ropes and put them in a steamer and steam them. You can cook them in a bamboo steamer or any electric rice streamer.
I know my instruction is very obscure, for I usually was not the one that made them. However, I do have a recipe for you:) If you have patience and time, you are welcome to try it. http://www.indochinekitchen.com/recipes/chinese-rice-dumpling-zong-zi/
Wrap zhongzi is very hard, so here is a video for you.
How to Wrap Zongzi (English version)
How to Wrap Zongzi (Chinese version)
We conclude the post with this song, a new year song, however, its name is called Dragon Boat Tune:)
Song Zuying – Dragon Boat Tune 龙船调
Skyrim: The Song of the Dragonborn (with lyrics)