Culture Insider: Dragon Boat Festival

Eating zongzi

Most Chinese festivals are tied to a particular food, and the Dragon Boat Festival is no exception.

A very popular dish during the Dragon Boat Festival is zongzi. This tasty dish consists of rice dumplings with meat, peanuts, egg yolks or other fillings wrapped in reed leaves. The tradition of zongzi is meant to remind us of village fishermen scattering rice across the water of the Miluo River in order to appease the river dragons and fish so that they would not devour Qu Yuan.