Holiday Notice on Dragon-Boat Festival

Kindly noted we have 3 days holiday for The Dragon Boat Festival form 22 -24 June.We will back to work on Sunday 25 June.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar. The exact date varies from year to year on the Gregorian calendar. The festival was long marked as a cultural festival in China, the government, however, did not officially recognize Duanwu as a public holiday until 2008.

The story best known in modern China holds that the festival commemorates the death of the poet Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty. A cabinet member of the Chu royal house, Qu Yuan served in high offices.

However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance and even accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi.

The focus of most celebrations involves eating zongzi (sticky rice / glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.

Zongzi, is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous / sticky rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo, reed, or other large flat leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling. In the Western world, they are also known as rice dumplings, or sticky rice dumplings.

Glutinous rice filled with meat, nuts or bean paste and wrapped in bamboo leaves. It is associated with Dragon Boat Festival with historical meaning. The custom of eating zongzi is now popular in North and South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.