Here is the example of my essay.
'The rice dumplings are ready!' said Grandma as she is happily carrying out all the cooked rice dumplings from the kitchen to the dining room.
Her grandchildren were elated and dashed to the dining room while shouting audibly, 'Yay! Time to eat!'
As they were savouring their delicacies, Grandma started telling her grandchildren about the origin and cultures of this special festival of the Chinese - Dumpling festival. It is also as known as the 'Duan Wu festival, Dragon Boat festival or the Double Fifth.' This immemorial traditional and statutory holiday originating in China, East Asia and the Southern Asia country. This festival has also been long celebrated in Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore and the rest of the Asia countries.
What is it that makes it so special about this Dumpling festival? This festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar which the moon is considered to be at its strongest around the time of summer solstice when the moonlight in the northern hemisphere is the longest. The sun, like the dragon, represents masculine energy. Whereas the moon, like the pheonix, represents the feminine energy. Summer solstice is considered as the peak annual moment of the male energy while the winter is considered as the peak annual moment of the feminine energy. This masculine image of the dragon is thus naturally associate with Duan Wu.
'Dumpling festival is celebrated to commemorate a venerable patriotic poet of the Chu states in the Warring States Period. ' said Grandma. Qu yuan was a Chinese patriotic poet who serve the emperor in the Chu Kingdom in ancient China. He is a good minister and was well adored by the citizens. However, bad evil court officials were envious of Qu Yuan's abilities and they successfully influence the weak-minded emperor to dismiss and exile him. Feeling disheartened, affronted and mad, Qu Yuan had no choice but to commit suicide. He tied himself to a rock and jumped into the Mi Luo river in Hunan province in the order to protest against injustice and corruption. When the citizens get to know of his death, they rowed their boats to the river to look for his body. When they failed to fins his body, they started beating their drums and making loud noises in the river hoping to scare the fishes and other sea creatures away so that they will not eat their body. As in China, dragons are traditionally believed to be the rulers of rivers, lakes and seas. Later on, they scattered rice into the water to prevent him from suffering hunger. Another belief is that the people makes rice dumplings to throw into the river believing that the sea creatures and the fishes will eat those dumplings instead of Qu Yuan's body. Ever since then, the fifth day of fifth month in the chinese calendar was set as Duan Wu festival to remember the incident.
Duan wu festival is also a great chance for busy families to gather together. It helps them to get closer to their family members from doing various activities which are mostly done by everyone during this festival. The common one is to make rice dumplings. Rice dumplings are made from several type of minced meat, mushrooms, nuts, egg yolk and glutinous rice. It may sounds easy to make but the method of cooking this rice dumplings needs time and efforts. First, you will have to cook the glutinous rice that you are using. Next, fry the ingredients above then take two bamboo leaves and fold it into a triangular poach shape, fill half of it with the cooked glutinous rice then add the rest of the ingredients fried and fill the rest of the poach with glutinous nice, tie it with the string and make sure the dumplings are securely wrapped and boil the dumplings in a pot of boiled water for 3 to 4 hours. Next, there is also an interesting game of making an egg stand exactly at 12noon. If you succeed in making the egg stand, people believe you will have luck for the next year. Dragon boat racing is also one of the favourite activity for mostly young people and middle-aged people as it is also considered as a sport.
'Ohhh!' said the grandchildren. They finally see the light as they actually thought that Dumpling festival is just a day meant for eating rice dumplings and does not have any origins nor stories. They continued asking for more stories about Dumpling festival and Grandma was delighted and hoping that this culture of Dumpling festival will continue on by the younger generations.
