Upcoming Holiday: Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan 🐉
Dragon Boat Festival is one of the biggest traditional holidays in Taiwan (besides Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival) and this year, it’s being celebrated on Monday, June 14th.
Besides getting a day off, what else does this holiday mean for our students? Below you’ll find some questions you can ask to spark discussion as well as relevant words and phrases (bolded) you can teach.
What’s a Dragon Boat?
Dragon boats are long, narrow boats with a dragon’s head in the front and a dragon’s tail in the back. Racing in these boats is an ancient sport that originated in what is now southern China thousands of years ago.
- Are there any dragon boat races in your city? Have you ever gone to see a race? Why? Why not?
- Would you participate in a dragon boat race?
The sport was largely revived by the Hong Kong government in the 1970s, after which it quickly spread around the world.
Most dragon boat races in Taiwan also officially started (or re-started) in the 1970s, so they’re somewhat of a new tradition. You can get an idea of it in this news report on the Taipei International Dragon Boat Festival.
If you do get on the topic of dragon boats, you might want to ask students about dragons in general and the symbolism behind them.
- Can you tell me why the boats are shaped like dragons instead of, say, sharks, dolphins or whales?
- What are dragons associated with in your culture?
- I hear that a lot of parents want their kids to be born in the year of the dragon. Is that true?
The Real Star of the Show
In Taiwan, the main star of the festival is something much humbler: sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo or banana leaves. Commonly known as either zong-zi or bah-tsang, they're actually available year-round in much of the Chinese-speaking world. The recipe differs from region to region, and in Taiwan alone, there are at least two different kinds: northern and southern-style.
- Do you like eating bah-tsang? Why? Why not?
- Do you make bah-tsang yourself? Or do you buy it?
- Can you tell me how bah-tsang differ in different parts of Taiwan?
- I hear people sometimes get an upset stomach from eating too much bah-tsang. Can you tell me why this is?
But how did bah-tsang become the highlight of the festival? This is something you’ll want to ask your students, but we’ll give you a sneak-peak.
Legend has it that a patriotic poet threw himself into a river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. And, as one version of the story goes, people threw balls of rice (the predecessor to bah-tsang) into the water so that fish would eat them instead of his body.
In reality, the origins of the festival predate the poet’s time. But as one scholar puts it, “Usually Chinese festivals are explained by the traumatic death of some great paragon of virtue,” so this story stuck and you can be sure your students will tell you some version of it!
- Can you tell me how the Dragon Boat Festival started?
- How did bah-tsang become such an important part of the Dragon Boat Festival?
- What are some other popular folktales in your culture?
You can see how a bah-tsang is made from scratch in this video:
Other Customs
Another Dragon Boat Festival custom is “egg balancing.” Many people believe that eggs can stand up straight on this day of the year, so ask your students whether they’ve tried to do this!
- I heard that people in Taiwan try to make eggs stand during the Dragon Boat Festival. Where does this custom come from? And have you ever succeeded?
- What other traditions does this holiday have?
Finally, many people schedule some trips or getaways with this extra time off, so be sure to ask your students where they’re headed.
- What are your plans for the long weekend?
- Where have you traveled during past Dragon Boat Festivals?
We hope you got a taste for all the fun things that happen during Dragon Boat Festival and what you might want to ask students about. Happy tutoring!
