Festival Carnival

Tuen Ng Festival

On the 5th day of the 5th month of the Lunar Year, the Chinese have their Tuen Ng Festival. People celebrate this festival by eating rice dumplings and having a dragon boat competition.

What are rice dumplings?

Rice dumplings are actually lumps of rice wrapped in lotus leaves. Inside the rice there is the stuffing. It can be either savory or sweet. Common ingredients for the stuffing are: meat dry mushroom beans salted egg yolk red bean paste lotus seed paste etc.

Rice Dumpling with Lotus Seed Paste as a filling (sweet)

Did you know?

There is an old story about Tuen Ng that explains why the people celebrate in the way they do:



Long, long ago, there was a man called Qu-yuan. He worked for the emperor. But there came a time when the emperor refused to listen to his advise. So, in order to make the emperor listen, Qu-yuan jumped into the river and drowned himself. Sadly, the emperor still didn't listen, and the empire fell shortly afterwards.

The people mourned for Qu-yuan as he was both loyal and good. They were afraid that the big fish in the river might eat him up. So they thought of a plan. The people made lots of rice dumplings and threw them into the river, hoping the fish would eat them instead. That is why, to this day, the Chinese still make rice dumplings every Tuen Ng.

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