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Next: about 9 Jun 2027

Dragon Boat Festival and zongzi

Zongzi wrapped in bamboo leaf, with fillings seasoned with soy, five-spice and white pepper, and realgar wine for health.

Photo: After Wen Jia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Spices for Dragon Boat Festival and zongzi

Dragon Boat day remembers the poet Qu Yuan with boat races and zongzi, sticky rice pyramids wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. In the south the filling is savoury: marinated pork belly, salted egg, mushroom and dried shrimp with soy, five-spice powder and white pepper; in the north, sweet with red dates. In folk custom, sachets of fragrant herbs including mugwort, calamus and cloves are hung on doors and worn by children. The festival shows a spice used both as flavour and as protection.

The spices

CloveUsed in children's aromatic sachets.Black pepperWhite pepper in the savoury filling.

Also part of it, and being written: Chinese five-spice powder (Seasons the pork filling of southern zongzi.).

About this page

Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Dragon Boat Festival" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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