Dragon Boat Festival

The 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar marks the Dragon Boat Festival. A celebration that began with a legend two thousand years ago and includes rice dumplings, boat races, drums and gongs. The story goes like this. “A famous poet drowned himself after his state was captures by opposing forces. The local villagers attempted to save his life by beating the water with their oars and sounding drums and gongs to scare of the fish trying to eat him. Rice dumplings were thrown into the river to lure hungry fish away from his body.” Today the festival is celebrated with annual dragon boat races up and down the rivers. Rice dumplings are also eaten during this time, I had two mini dumplings for breakfast. Flavored sticky rice first thing in the morning would certainly take some getting use to.

To celebrate, several of the young teachers went to a restaurant for Hot Pot, very similar to fondue. One large pot is sunken into the middle of the table over a gas powered element. The pot is divided into three sections, the middle is for the beef broth soup, and the two outer portions contain cooking oil, one super super spicy, and other one is just plain. An assortment of vegetables and meats await on a tray beside the table until we are ready to cook them. We had many things that I was unable to identify. Some tasted good while others really didn’t have much flavor. I later found out the stuff that looked like tofu was actually ducks blood in tofu form, I steered clear of it for the rest of the meal. We also cooked leaf lettuce, baby greens, and cilantro in the Hot Pot, they tasted the best even though I would never have thought to boil lettuce. It was a nice evening even if we did have to consult the portable electronic translator every 5 minutes.


Answers from previous blog pictures
Photo #1 The lock to my apartment door
Photo #2 An upside down clay pot for a plant (those are drainage holes)
Photo #3 Incense, they are located outside everyones door except for mine
Photo #4 Rice Dumplings
Photo #5 A basket used to catch fish