Friday, June 22, 2007

Celebrating Dragon Boat Festival

Tuesday, June 19th, was the start of Dragon Boat Festival, one of Taiwan's holidays. The legend behind it is the following:
Qu Yuan served as minister to the Zhou Emperor. A wise and articulate man, he was loved by the common people. He did much to fight against the rampant corruption that plagued the court-- thereby earning the envy and fear of other officials. Therefore, when he urged the emperor to avoid conflict with the Qin Kingdom, the officials pressured the Emperor to have him removed from service. In exile, he traveled, taught and wrote for several years. Hearing that the Zhou had been defeated by the Qin, he fell into despair and threw himself into the Milou River.
As he was so loved by the people, fishermen rushed out in long boats, beating drums to scare the fish away, and throwing zong zi into the water to feed braver fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.
Grace, a lady in the church, stopped by on Tuesday and brought us zong zi. It is 'sticky' rice, with a filling, wrapped in corn leaves. The fillings can be egg, beans, dates, fruits, sweet potato, walnuts, mushrooms, meat, or a combination of them. They are generally steamed. Yum, yum! :o)

Tad with his lunch and drink

Hannah with her lunch and the newspaper about the Dragon Boat Festival

Tad opening his zong zi

Hannah and zong zi

Zong zi up close . . . complete with egg, peanuts, mushrooms, and pork

Pearl milk tea . . . 'pearl' up close

Tad with pearls in his mouth (some people just never grow up!) :o)

Pearls that were left after drinking all the milk tea. We couldn't believe how many pearls were in there!!!!

5 comments:

Ben and Carissa said...

Wow! What adventures you guys are having. The little lunch pockets looked... very interresting... but yummy I'm sure. By the way, I really enjoyed the hair cut pictures. Ben and I got a good laugh. You look beautiful. Love ya!!

The Horaks said...

That is so interesting! It must be neat to be in such a different culture! I love how you two are just jumping in there and trying all the new things!

Anonymous said...

Do they even come close to "Hot Pockets"? ha!ha! Way to try new things...just make sure they are cooled enough before eating!! =) Maybe in chinatown in SF we can find some and try them.
~Phil and Rachel

Christina said...

I love those Pearl drinks! Seriously, I do... Anyway I'm sorry I never got a letter to you before you left. The last couple of months have been rough physically on me and has left me with a "to do" list that is depressing to look at! :-) I guess I can't just pick up and call you anymore, huh. I love ya and I look forward to seeing your updates! Love ya girly!

Anonymous said...

Like Phil and Rachel, I thought of 'hot pockets' right away too. Good times traveling to Awana. Glad you are updating this and look forward to reading about your adventures. I trust your preaching is going well and the translator is not proving too burdensome.