The Story Behind The Dragon Boat Festival and Its Guilt-Free Rice Dumplings

by Chan Li Yen

Image Source: Oversea Restaurant

With Malaysia being a multicultural nation, every month brings excitement and exuberance as there is never a stop for festivals to celebrate. Past in line was the turn of the Chinese community to commemorate the ancient tradition of the Dragon Boat Festival.

While some may not understand the term, in Chinese, “Dragon Boat Festival” is known as “duan wu”, which is then translated into double fifth. Why? You may ask. The festival is named the way it is as it lies on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. Such as dragon boat racing and of course not forgetting the indulgence of guilt-free rice dumplings are the types of activities practiced to commemorate the special day.

The Story Behind the Festival

To simply elucidate, the solidarity gestures that continue to be practiced by the Chinese community can be illustrated back to the Chinese dynasties where the story of a prestigious poet Qi Yuan came about. After receiving devastating news about the defeat of the Chu Kingdom in which Qi Yuan dedicated his life to, he did a suicidal act which led him to drown in the Miluo River. His actions triggered a mass rescue and locals who highly admired Qi Yuan threw rice dumplings into the river in hopes of avoiding his body to be fed by the aquatics. Thus bringing about the serving of delectable glutinous rice dumplings during the festival

Image Source: Oversea Restaurant

Coming back to the present, the Chinese community have then adjusted the flavors of sticky rice dumplings to their own palates. In general, a traditional sticky rice dumpling would consist of glutinous rice and a diverse range of fillings like chestnut, dried shrimp, meat, salted egg yolk, mushrooms and mungbean wrapped in bamboo or lotus leaves. After that, to fully experience the ever delicious pyramid-shaped savouries, the wrapped dumplings would be cooked to perfection in hot boiling water.

Aside from having the typical savoury type, Chinese also enjoy consuming rice dumplings that are of sweet flavours. Often for sweet rice dumplings, it is served with honey or sugar and it can be consumed in either hot or cold. Moreover, other common flavours like red bean and nyonya flavoured dumplings like kaya are also often found during the festival.

All in all, celebrating such festivals are important as they add structure to every culture and pass on important knowledge and traditions to next generations. Not only that, it brings families and friends together as it rejoices special moments in life, creating peace, harmony and happiness.