Duan Wu Festival

The 'Duan Wu' festival or simply rice dumpling festival (as we used to eat dumplings to celebrate the festival) is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar. I'm sure that every Chinese is very familiar with the story behind this festival, which is to commemorate the patriotic poet, Qu Yuan who committed suicide as an act of patriotism.


Rice dumplings.. :P

As we all know, eating rice dumplings and dragon boat racing are the common activities practised on Duan Wu festival right here in Malaysia. In Kuching, dragon boat racing is held at the Sarawak River in conjunction with the celebration of this festival. I also like to eat rice dumplings. I love the dumplings stuffed with chestnuts and mellon sweet. It is one of my favourite food. However, in Taiwan, other than those practices, there's an unique activity going on that particular day which is 'li dan' which means "egg-standing". It does not carry the meaning of "standing on an egg" but it means "making an egg to stand". Sharp at 12 noon, people will go outdoors and "stand" the egg under the sun. Don't be surprised, the eggs stand upright!! The Taiwanese had broken the Guinness World record by standing 1972 eggs in year 2005. Some Malaysians do also practise this tradition but it is not as common.


"li dan"

The Koreans also celebrate this festival. For your information,the Gangneung Danoje Festival(Duan Wu festival in Korean) is a national event that was even acknowledged as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. However, the Chinese were very mad when this festival was declared as the heritage of Korea as the Chinese claim this festival originated from China. Although the festival falls on the same day, the purpose of celebration is a little different.The Dano festival is a sacrificial ritual to the spirits of agriculture, heaven and mountain, in celebration of the end of sowing season. The Koreans also eat rice cakes on that day. They play traditional folk games on that day. One of the games is the traditional Kune (Korean swing). The special thing about this swing is the Korean will not sit on the swing but stand on the board to swing. What an exciting way of playing a swing!



Korean swing~ wee~