The Dragon Boat Holiday or duan wu jie is upon us. This holiday commemorates the politically based suicide of the Chines poet, Qu Yuan and is celebrated by dragon boat races. This year, the holiday falls on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Because we get three days off for the holiday, students and faculty were required to make up all missed classes this weekend. I taught four hours Sunday; some of my colleagues taught eight.
People kept giving us enormous bags filled with Zonzi and hard-boiled duck eggs. Zonzi are balls of sticky rice wrapped up in bamboo or willow leaves, the traditional festival foods. I'm told they are steamed-- I haven't fixed ours yet. According to legend, Zonzi were thrown in the lake Qu Yuan drowned himself in to distract hungry fish from eating the body.
Zonzi appears to be one of those festival foods which some people like and others could do without-- rather like matzoh, fruitcake, and black eye peas. The university has already given us a couple of bags of the stuff, and other faculty keep trying to unload theirs on us.
Photos:Dragon boat races; Zonzi and hard-boiled duck eggs
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