Sunday, June 04, 2006
STicky Rice
Every year at the end of May our family has a tradition where we make sticky rice from scratch. This activity dates back to a very old Chinese event often associated with the annual dragon boat festival held in Vancouver.
There was a well known poet named Qu Yuan in China who was loved by the public for his charasmatic personality.
One day Qu wrote an article critcizing the Emperor of falling into corruption and abandoning his moral duty as a leader. The emperor of China was deeply offended by Qu Yuan's article so, the fearious emperor ordered Qu be killed.
Once news of Qu's death made it to the local villages, they all worked together to retrieve his body from the Mi Lo River. Little paquets of sticky rice bound with bamboo leaves were made to discourage man-eating fish from feasting on Qu's body. All of the villagers with boats quickly paddled out with loud beating drums to deter these dangerous fish away from the dead corpse.
Today this patriot poet, Qu's is still celebrated as a yearly event in Vancouver, where the public will come out to watch the famous Dragon Boat Race on the banks of False Creek.
