Chinese
Wen Ju Hour - Language Teacher
Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday which falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is in late May or June on the Gregorian calendar. In 2024, Dragon Boat Festival falls on June 10 (Monday).
It is one of the four top traditional Chinese festivals, along with the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet. He was a government minister known for his patriotism and contributions to classical poetry, who eventually became a national hero.
Here is the link about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival for your interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUDY-SMREtA
Below are the activities that people may do, to celebrate the dragon Boat Festival.
The two main activities during the festival are eating zongzi (rice dumplings) and boat races.
Here are some activities that you can do at home if you are interested.
The Stand up Egg
The Dragon Boat Day is usually in June, which is Horse month. Horse hour in astrology is from 11:00 AM to 13:00 PM. They said that you will be lucky for the coming year if you can make an egg stand up during Horse hour on the Dragon Boat Day.
Parents like to let their children try to make the egg stand up on the Dragon Boat Day. Certainly, the standing up egg competition will be held at noon in many places. They said that it will be easier to make a standing up egg at noon.
Here is a link to see how to balance the eggs up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM8BXG1p1pA
Dragon Boat making
Here are some links to make dragon boats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot_OXIXAsLk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N7EUi3-PG8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQDATqbqcy8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqr-FNr0XxI
Sticky rice dumpling making
Zong-zi, is the food that Chinese eat on the Dragon Boat Day period. Zong-zi is make of steamed glutinous sweet rice mixing with meat and condiment wrapped in the bamboo leaves. They are salty, sweet, hot or cold different types of Zong-Zi.
Here are links for how to make Sticky rice dumplings at home if you are interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjNpmNtzh50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR96hP5m37o
If you don’t have time to make them, then you can make origami rice dumpling. Here are some links if you would like to do it with your children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5LA78dN4yo
The students will be introduced to the origins of this festival and fun cultural activities in Chinese class.
Hope you have a wonderful family time creating some of these special things for the Dragon Boat Festival 2024.
