Australian students, residents enjoy Duanwu festivities

Australian student Thomas Watson knows friends who take part in dragon boat racing on Lake Burley Griffin in his hometown of Canberra.

But it was only on Friday (June 19) that he learned the water sport traces its roots to a major Chinese festival celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the traditional Chinese calendar.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, fell on Friday this year. The festival honors Qu Yuan, a legendary patriot-poet of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), and upholds traditional values such as family and community ties.

Duanwu is also known for the preparation and eating of zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves with sweet or savory fillings.

Watson, 21, said he has never made or eaten zongzi for Duanwu before but was now looking to try his hand at a savory one.

The third-year psychology major at the University of Sydney was attending a Duanwu cultural event in the city, where Chinese students and other participants packed a community hall to wrap dumplings together. They also took part in related activities such as filling sachets with aromatic herbs like Chinese mugwort, making traditional lacquer fans and playing touhu or pitch-pot ancient arrow-tossing game.

The event was hosted by the Sydney University Chinese Students Association and the University of Technology Sydney Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

Lin Xiaoqing, counsellor-rank consul for education affairs at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney, said she hoped the event would help foster Chinese students' links with home and create rich memories of their time overseas.