As a Taiwanese American mom in the US, I recently realized that my 18.5 month-old (HH) will not only miss out on Taiwanese food that I don’t cook, but also Taiwanese holidays and traditions that I fail to remember because I took those celebrations for granted when I grew up in Taiwan. (#momfail #dontjudgeme) So, with the help of google calendar, wikipedia and my shoddy memory, here is my attempt to introduce HH to as much of his Taiwanese roots as possible with my first blog on Taiwanese holidays.
Disclaimer: A lot of holiday traditions are family-specific, so if what you do differs from what my family does, feel free to share what you do!!
Tidbits
- This year, Duan Wu Jie (端午節) is on June 18th. It is typically celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar (historically, according to wikipedia, the holiday was on the 7th day of the 5th month) – if you have trouble remembering it, an awesome fellow TA mom suggested adding the Taiwanese holiday to your google calendar
- In the US, it is sometimes referred to as the Dragon Boat Festival, because dragon boats are typically raced for the celebration of Duan Wu
- The tradition related to Duan Wu Jie is to eat Zong Zi (粽子), sometimes referred to as Chinese or Taiwanese tamales (or are tamales Mexican Zong Zi? hmmm…). There are many types of Zong Zi – sweet and savory; families have different traditions on what they put into theirs, but I’m familiar with 4 types that my family eats
- Zong Zi (粽子) – savory, filled with pork belly (originates from somewhere in China)
- Batsang (肉粽) – savory, filled with pork, a chestnut, a mushroom and an egg yolk (very Taiwanese)
- Red bean Zong (豆沙粽) – sweet, filled with red bean paste
- Jian Zong (鹼粽) – sweet, nothing inside, but we eat it cold and dip in sugar (I used to love this one because I could dip it in as much sugar as I wanted to!!)
Origin
The origin story that I know of (passed down orally to me) is of the scholar Qu Yuan (屈原) who drowned himself in the Miluo River because he was disappointed with the state of the government. In light of recent news on suicides and manic depression, I don’t want to get too much into that. #RIPkatespade #RIPanthonybourdain. The people of the village didn’t want the fish in the river to eat Qu Yuan, so they made rice balls (earlier rendition of zong zi) to feed the fish. Then, every year on the anniversary of his demise, peopled raced dragon boats to commemorate his life.
According to wikipedia, there is a 2nd theory about Wu ZiXu and a 3rd theory that both the Qu Yuan story and Wu ZiXu story were superimposed onto a pre-existing holiday by Confucian scholars. In any case, pick the origin story that suits you and maybe make it a little PG for your kids. (Skip out on the fish eating a human corpse?) Here is a wiki link for reference on origin.
How you can celebrate this year
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- Eat Zong Zi – any type, just eat it (and if you’re really hardcore, make it with your kid(s)).
Shameless plug – here is a recipe from “Taiwanese Homestyle Cooking”, an awesome Taiwanese cookbook sold by TACL-LYF to raise money for TACL’s kids’ summer camp in NorCal - Attend a Dragon Boat Festival and support Taiwanese American Professional (TAP) teams – these are young TA professionals who are carrying on the Dragon Boat tradition
- @Atlanta (Sep 8, 2018): check out the family-friendly full-day event of Dragon Boat Atlanta – TAP-Atlanta has a boat sponsored by TECO and other organizations;
- @Bay Area (Sep 15-16, 2018): the International Dragon Boat Festival at Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA – TAP-SF won silver medal in 2017
- @NY (Aug 11-12, 2018): check out the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing – the TAP-NY team competes in Flushing, NY (but also at other venues like Philadelphia) and has brought home the gold before!
- Eat Zong Zi – any type, just eat it (and if you’re really hardcore, make it with your kid(s)).
- Make “dragon boats” with your kids and race it in a pool or bath tub – here are some links I googled and thought were cool:
Personally, I’m waiting for HH to get a little older before we start hosting Dragon Boat races, but let me know if you do something – would LOVE to see your photos and ideas. =) Email me at jacqui.wu@tacl.org if you want to share anything.