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ZongziThe Zongzi or rice dumpling () is a traditional Chinese food, akin to the Mesoamerican tamal. The origins of rice dumplings are traced to the legend of Qu Yuan, a well-loved poet who drowned himself in a river. To stop the fish from eating his body, people made rice dumplings and threw them into the river. Another version of the legend states that the dumplings were made to placate a dragon that lived in the river. Rice dumplings are made for the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. The fillings for the dumplings vary from region to region but the rice used is always sticky rice. Fillings may be sweet, such as mashed yellow beans or savoury and may include pork, Chinese mushrooms, salted egg, chestnuts or even no filling at all and eaten with sugar or syrup. The rice dumpling is usually a pyramid of rice which encloses the filling and wrapped in dried bamboo leaves or lotus leaves. Wrapping a dumpling neatly is a skill which is passed down through families, as are the recipes. Dumpling-making is usually a family event with everyone helping out. The dumplings need to be steamed for several hours and one superstition says that dumplings will never cook if a pregnant woman enters the kitchen whilst they are being steamed.
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