Thursday, May 28, 2009

Happy Dumpling Day

Today, 28 May 08 is Duan-Wu Festival (端午节), also known as Dumpling Festival or Dragon Boat Festival. Let us see what are the highlights for the Duan-Wu Festival:


Rice Dumplings (粽子)

Generally, a day you may skip your favorite mee wantan, laksa, fried kueh tiaw, chicken rice and etc for the breakfast, lunch & dinner, but only feed your hungry stomach with the rice dumpling(s)......^ ^ I noticed that most young generation like to eat rice dumpling, but they never manage to learn how to wrap a rice dumpling from the elderly. These days, this special tradition food can be found everywhere at any time, especially in the "KopiTiam" (cafe), Chinese restaurant & hawker centre.

the rice dumplings


Standing Eggs

A day even if you are not a magician, you are able to make an egg standing on the floor on its end in the noon time. I have heard many words regarding this, but never manage to find out the truth in the past 30 years. Well, today I did the 1st experiment and it proved that what people said is not a myth; and what interesting is some people found that we actually can stand an egg on its end on any day of the year, as long as we are patience enough to find out the balance point of an egg.

standing eggs on the floor in the noon time


Noon Time Water (午时水)

Whilst I was a small child, my parent told that the water taken from the well, pond or pool in the noon time of the Duan-Wu Festival has the magical power, by which it is good for health if we drink it; and can wash out the dirt (bad luck) if we shower our self with the water. Have you ever heard about this legend? Do you believe in it?


Dragon Boat Race (龙舟赛)

The last but not least, is the dragon boat race, which normally only perform on Duan-Wu Festival. The boat used is long & narrow, canoe-styled human powered boat, which decorated with a dragon head & tail at each end, and is equipped with a drum & paddles. During the tradition dragon boat racing, the drummer responsible to lead the paddlers on the timing and frequency of the paddling strokes by a rhythmic beating of a drum.


Happy Duan-Wu Festival
please be reminded not to eat too many of dumplings
as the glutinous rice no good for the digestive system

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8 comments:

keeyit said...

I dont know that the eggs really can stand still like that.. cool~

Forever28 said...

Hehe... I nearly forget today is 端午节... Anyway, I am not a dumpling fanatic.

Nux V said...

i hav never heard of that noon time water legend...
it is jst another superstitious belief.

Anonymous said...

Happy Dumpling Day!

I love dumplings. I had one this morning. My fav are the ones with salted egg, chestnut, beans and mushrooms.

Kikey Loo said...

端午节快乐!

Unknown said...

the day came & went pretty fast for me. hope u enjoyed yr dumplings :) btw thanks for the other info too

amei79 said...

keeyit:
i knew but never try...u should try one...

Forever28:
me also not realise the come of the duanwu festival, need people remind me...^ ^

NuxV:
u can try to google it, got some info on the net.

Mei Teng:
eh...never try the dumpling with salted egg so far. normally only pork, groundnut, and mushroom.

Kikey Loo:
Have a nice day!

QuaChee:
wat kind of info? the noon time water?

Unknown said...

the egg