9 Jun at MN Canteen, about 30 staff participated in the zongzi DIY activity to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. This event was jointly organize by the Confucius Institute and HR Department.

Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar. There were many custom on the day. In ancient time, people believed the fifth month was an unlucky month because natural disasters and illnesses were common in the month. Therefore, they hung calamus and artemisia on the door, hoping the sword shaped herb and the herb’s strong smell could remove the evil spirits. Meanwhile, they wore fragrant sachets to avoid poisonous animals approaching to them in order to avoid diseases. People also race dragon boats and eat zongzi to memorize a patriotic poet Qu Yuan.

After learning the origin of the festival, participants started to make zongzi under the guidance of the masters. They showed great interests in the event and many of them claimed that they hope that there would be more activities on Chinese culture.