Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival: A Joyful Journey into Chinese Culture

Last week, our school celebrated the traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival—also known as Duanwu Jie (端午节). In the weeks leading up to the celebration, our teachers thoughtfully designed and carried out a variety of hands-on cultural learning experiences and festive activities across all programs.

To help students understand the deep cultural significance of the festival, classes began with storytelling and reading sessions exploring the origins of the Dragon Boat Festival and its time-honored traditions. Students learned about the patriotic poet Qu Yuan, the thrilling dragon boat races held in his memory, the custom of wearing fragrant herbal sachets to ward off insects and evil spirits, and the beloved tradition of eating zongzi (粽子)— sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Our classrooms buzzed with joyful energy as students engaged in arts and crafts, built model dragon boats, created rice dumpling-themed artwork, and played traditional festival games. The highlight of our celebration, however, was a hands-on cooking experience led by our very own Principal Helen Wong.

Under Principal Wong’s guidance, the students took part in every step of making real zongzi from scratch. They observed how to rinse and boil bamboo leaves to prepare them, practiced folding the leaves into cone shapes, filled them with seasoned sticky rice, and tied them securely with cotton string. Of course, our young chefs also expressed their creativity by shaping their dumplings in fun and imaginative ways!

To complete the experience, each student proudly took home their handmade zongzi—eager to share and enjoy it with their families—as well as a fragrant herbal sachet from their teachers, given as a token of good wishes for the festival.

More than just a festive celebration, these activities offered a rich, multisensory learning experience that brought Chinese cultural heritage to life. Through tradition, storytelling, creativity, and language, our students deepened their understanding of Chinese culture while building meaningful connections to the world around them. We are proud to offer opportunities like this to nurture curiosity, cultural appreciation, and a lifelong love of learning in every child.