It's festival time once again, this time the "Festival of the Patriotic Poet" which is associated with glutinous rice dumplings. Many devotees bring these dumplings to the temple for prayer and also give them to the nuns who are very fond of them. Each year they have a small "dumpling party" in the kitchen and every year, Head Nun will tell the story of the origins of the Dumpling Festival, although we have heard it many times before!
Here's the story anyway:
端午节 (Duan Wu Jie) is known as the Rice Dumpling Festival or the Dragon Boat Festival. It is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month (22nd June this year).
According to legend, there was once a Chinese poet and court advisor called 屈原 Qu Yuan. He was a loyal and intelligent servant of the people. Sadly, the emperor was influenced by jealous court officials and sent Qu Yuan into exile. Qu Yuan was so frustrated that he decided to drown himself in the river in protest.
The villagers loved Qu Yuan and were distraught. So they raced their boats up and down the river searching for his body. When they couldn’t find it, they started beating drums and making a racket hoping to scare the fish away so that they would not eat his body. Some other people made rice dumplings to feed the fish to distract them. The festival has become a tradition up to this day for the Chinese humans though rice dumplings are eaten purely for enjoyment.
Happy Dumpling Festival everyone!
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