The Dragon Boat
Festival is approaching, so I write to introduce this
Chinese traditional
festival and its rice tamale (zong zi 粽子). The
5th of May in the Lunar
Calendar (Tuesday June 19, 2007) is the
Dragon Boat Festival every. It also
has a beautiful legend. Qu
Yuan（屈原）was an upright and honest officer in Chun
Qin period (a period
of Chinese history). He was framed by villains so he
jumped into Mi
Luo River. People threw rice tamales into the river in case
the
dragons ate his corpse. So now we eat rice tamales and row
dragon
boats in honour of him.
Rice tamales are mainly made of
glutinous rice. Some kinds also have
dates, meat, fruits and so on. These
ingredients are packed by special
leaves. They also have a particular shape
called "the shape of rice
tamales". After steaming or boiling them for 20
minutes, we can
uncover the packed leaves,and see this white rice. Dip a
little sugar
or soy sauce, and then have a taste----sticky and sweet.
DR.APPLE
