Today is the annual Dragon Boat Festival Day, a traditional Chinese holiday. Early this morning, I cooked two small zongzi for my son to take as his school lunch, and I told him once again the story behind the Dragon Boat Festival.

In short, the Dragon Boat Festival originates from the Warring States period of ancient China, specifically from the state of Chu. It commemorates Qu Yuan, a famous patriotic poet of that time. Qu Yuan drowned himself in the river as a protest against the invasion of his country, refusing to abandon his homeland. The local people, in an effort to recover his body and prevent it from being eaten by the fish, threw zongzi into the river to feed the fish and raced in boats to search for Qu Yuan’s body. This tradition evolved into the customs of eating zongzi and holding dragon boat races, which have been preserved to this day. In many places across China, the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated with dragon boat races, where teams compete fiercely on the water, while eating zongzi has become a must-have tradition for people all over the country.

The way zongzi is made varies from region to region, but they all share common characteristics: they are wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, and glutinous rice is the main ingredient. In my hometown of Hunan, we eat plain zongzi without any filling, and we dip them in sugar. In my husband’s hometown, they prefer savoury zongzi, with fillings like beans, salted egg yolk, or meat. My personal favourite is the Jiaxing zongzi, filled with salted egg yolk and cured pork. It’s so delicious and fragrant that just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Most zongzi are diamond-shaped, but some are rectangular.

In the past, zongzi was a treat we could only enjoy during the Dragon Boat Festival. This was because, in times when goods and commodities were scarce, zongzi were usually handmade by adults who set aside time to prepare them for this specific holiday. Nowadays, zongzi is available year-round, pre-packaged and stocked in the frozen sections of supermarkets. Even in Chinese supermarkets here in Canada, you can find them almost any time. However, we still have the tradition of eating zongzi only at the Dragon Boat Festival Day.

Making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) is a skillful craft. At least for me, I still haven’t learned how to wrap the rice so compactly in that shape without it falling apart. Typically, the wrapped zongzi is cooked by steaming， but most zongzi nowadays are pre-made and packaged, ready to be cooked. When you want to eat them, you simply boil them in water for a while, and they’re ready to serve. This is exactly how I prepared the zongzi for my son’s lunch this morning. Therefore, zongzi is now a kind of ready-to-eat food.

Although the Dragon Boat Festival originated from a sorrowful story, over the centuries, it has transformed into a lively and warm holiday. On this day, the phrase we most often say to friends and family is “端午安康” (Duānwǔ ānkāng), which means “Wishing you peace and health.”

I hope that today, this blessing can also reach all of you. Wishing everyone peace and health on this Dragon Boat Festival!