Today being the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, it is the Dragon Boat Festival. Tuen Ng commemorates an ancient national hero, Qu Yuan, who threw himself into the Mi Lo river to protest against the corrupt rulers of the time. Legend has it that as the townspeople tried to rescue him, they beat drums to scare away the fish and threw dumplings into the water to keep the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body. This grew into the drumbeating coxes of today's dragon boats, and the traditional dumplings of the festival.
More here and here. I'd heard that it was hot, crowded, and very spring-break-like (there was even an article in the South China Morning Post yesterday about how to get drunk barge-hopping), so as I was on my own with the girls and we'd gotten up at 5:30 to see Grandma off, we decided to simply watch it on television. Not very authentic, I'm afraid, but we did have dumplings from the restauraunt downstairs, at least!
Today is also, of course,
Worldwide Knit in Public Day. I took the Forbes Forest scarf to the playground with us -- far too hot for the mohair of Misty Garden, but the stiff breeze blowing around the corner of the building kept the temperature from being unbearable.
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