Tomorrow, June 16th, is one of the Chinese holiday called Dragon Boat Festival.  The actual lunar date is May 5th.  When I was little, this holiday consisted of 4 things for me: No school, Dragon Boat race (super boring watching it on TV, sorry, it wasn’t that exciting for a 10 year old girl), eat Zong-zi (sweet rice mixed with meat wrapped in Bamboo leaves), and taking a bath at noon.  The day will then ends with a nice dinner, with everyone in the family gathered around.

A few things you should know about the Dragon Boat Festival.  1)This Dragon Boat festival is to memorializes the Chinese patriotic poet Chiu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC or 343-290 B.C.), who committed suicide by jumping into the river after tying himself with big rock on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month.  He was loved by the people at that time, and many fishermen tried to rescue him but his body was never found.  Then the people threw food into the river to feed the fish, so that the fish wouldn’t eat Chiu Yuan.  The people then splashed the water with their paddles and beat the drums loudly to try to scare the fish away.  Yes, you got it.  That is exactly how the Zong-zi and the Dragon Boat come from.

Now the Dragon Boat race becomes an international sport.  So whoever and whatever you are, raise your cups and give yourself some Dragon Boat spirit.