What do you know about the Dragon Boat Festival?

In Vietnam, the Dragon Boat Festival is known by a rather colloquial name: the "Insect Extermination Festival." The name originates from the story of agricultural communities learning how to deal with insects that eat fruits and food after harvests.

To prevent insect infestations that could damage food, people set up simple offerings at home, including rice cakes (gio) and fruit. The offerings are usually made at midday (the hour of the Horse - approximately 11 am to 1 pm), and since the festival is celebrated at noon, the festival is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival (Tet Doan Ngo).

Because of the belief that the fifth lunar month is the most "unlucky" time of the year, with its sweltering summer heat and susceptibility to disease, the dishes prepared for the Dragon Boat Festival offerings need to incorporate the properties of herbs and plants, making them easy to digest and cooling. Fruits, rice cakes, and glutinous rice wine are common offerings during this time.

Fermented sticky rice is widely sold during the Dragon Boat Festival for people to offer as sacrifices. Sticky rice is easy to cook, but to transform it into a delicious and "insect-killing" fermented rice dish requires a special type of yeast. If the yeast is not good or of low quality, the fermented rice will be tough, not properly fermented, and will lack the fragrant, sweet, spicy, and tingling sensation on the tongue when each spoonful is enjoyed.

Photo: Vu Minh Quan

Heritage Magazine