My wife mentioned that China had a new national holiday, The Rice Cake Festival. When I learned about The Festival of the Hungry Ghost, I wrote about that as I did The Dragon Boat Festival and the Spring Festival – Year of the Tiger.
I decided to discover more about this new holiday—and Google, which rarely disappoints, had nothing specific. I read that diplomats from 26 countries gathered in Taiwan to celebrate the Lantern Festival by making rice cakes, and Korean and Vietnamese sites mentioned Rice Cake Festivals but nothing about China having one.
Zongzi, Chinese sticky-rice cakes
There were videos on YouTube on making rice cakes. The Chinese version of a sticky rice cake video was similar to the process my wife uses. However, besides the essential sticky rice, the other ingredients are optional. My wife has made sticky rice cakes with only rice, raisins and black beans. She also said that for centuries, Silk Road caravans leaving China carried rice cakes as rations since they have a long shelf life.
When I checked a list of China’s Public Holidays, the only one listed for June was the Dragon Boat Festival. Then I read that “Zongzi”, traditional rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves, are eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival, a three-day holiday.
______________
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.
iLook China 