A woman makes zongzi (rice dumplings) in Haiyou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, June 4, 2011. As the Duanwu Festival draws near, handmade Zongzi, a kind of traditional food for the festival, became more and more popular. The Duanwu Festival, also known as Dragon Boat Festival, falls on June 6 this year. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)
SNACKS AND HERBS
Besides the rice balls, traditional Duanwu Festival snacks also included eggs boiled with onions or wormwood to keep fit.
Parents in southern China often hang a pack of eggs on their children’s neck to protect them from evil. As a legend goes, the god of plague has promised a fairy to spare all her children of pestilence. The token for her children is a pack of eggs on the neck, the fairy says.
The Duanwu Festival is also an occasion for health care, as people in southern China traditionally harvest herbs, bathe in herbal liquid and drink herbal wine on that day.
In many parts of China, people also make small herbal packs as a means of decoration and amulet.
“Diseases, snakes and insects are prone to attack around the Duanwu Festival, when it becomes hot and humid,” said Prof. Wang Laihua with Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. “The herb helps fight them off.”
He said some of the traditions are making a comeback these days as more Chinese people cherish traditional culture.
The Chinese government’s decision to include the Duanwu Festival as a public holiday since 2008 also gave people more time to celebrate.
This year the holiday runs from Saturday to Monday.
Ministry of Railways predicted the country’s railways will transport 23.1 million passengers during the three-day holiday, up 11.4 percent year-on-year.
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| Actresses perform a drum show in the Jinyang Lake park in Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province, June 4, 2011. The Jinyang Lake Dragon Boat Festival Folk Festival opened Saturday. The event will present a series of celebrations including dragon boat race and zongzi (rice dumpling)-wrapping contest for three days. The traditional Dragon Boat Festival falls on June 6 this year. (Xinhua/Fan Minda) |
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| Competitors row during the dragon boat race in Nanchang County, east China’s Jiangxi Province, June 4, 2011. The race is held here in celebration of traditional Chinese festival Dragon Boat Festival or Duanwu Festival, which falls on June 6 this year. Despite the lingering drought here which causes narrowed water surface and lower water level, people are still full of enthusiasm about the race. (Xinhua/Zhou Ke) |
bron: news.xinhuanet.com [4-6-2011]
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