Duan Wu Jie..

端午节。Dragon Boat Festival.. Or.. Whatever we want to call it. Many Singaporeans don’t really celebrate it anyway. If they do, do they know the significance? I am not here trying to tell the world how much I know. I don’t know well too. I am just so local. Haha..

Anyway, how many people celebrate a festival
because they know its significance,
because they believe in the significance,
because they want to emulate such significance in their own life in one way or another?

The New Year (新年) – Do we really feel like having a new beginning and cherish the new opportunity to be a better person? Do we see the point in the mutual visiting (when in many instances were once-in-a-year visiting)? Precisely, who make visiting an once-in-a-year affair in the first place? Or are we just after the ang baos? …

Qing Ming Jie (清明节) – Do we really feel the gratitude to our ancestors and (for some) sincerely offer to them whatever by burning the “paper equivalence”? Or are we hoping to strike-it-big in return?

Dragon Boat Festival (端午节) – Do we really feel for the patriotism demonstrated by 屈原 (Qu Yuan) so long long ago? Or are we just craving for the rice dumplings?

Hungry Ghost Festival (中元节) – Do we really feel sorry for the beings in the hellish realms and wish to help them in transcending to higher realms? Or are we merely trying our best to appease them out of fear and hope in return, we can strike-it-big (again)?

Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) – Do we really feel the importance of bonding between human beings, particularly between family members? Or are we just longing for the different varieties of moon cakes?

Christmas (圣诞节) – Do we really feel for the giving spirit and the message of love and happily participated in the giving and loving? Or are we just happy to receive many gifts and happy about the many offers they cooked up?

Etc. Etc. Etc……

Okay, let me save some more “air time” for Dragon Boat Festival, since today is the day.

Actually, well before 屈原 (Qu Yuan), 端午节 was already being widely celebrated for other different reasons.

In Chinese expression :
农历五月五日是端午节，和春节、中秋并列为最重要的三个节庆。端午节时值夏季，正是疾病开始流行的季节，因此端午节的由来，可追溯为驱邪避恶，以求身心的平安，后来加入爱国诗人屈原的传说，更增添了端午节的重要性。

There is another long forgotten practice, I think. There is a belief if anyone can make an egg stand at the noon time of this day, the year will be a good year for him. Yes, I mean 立鸡蛋. Miraculously, seemingly only on this day, at noon time, we can make an egg stand vertically at its broader end. I tried it once in 1997 while I was in South Africa. It worked! One egg was left standing in the kitchen at noon time and I remember it only toppled automatically after dinner time.

You are lucky, I managed to find some photos of those standing eggs as proof. Showing you one here :

~ Standing Eggs ~
We made the eggs stand.