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Lesson Transcript

Hi guys, welcome to Cantonese holiday words. In this video, we are going to talk about one of the Hong Kong festivals and I will find out what it is. 端午節 (dyun1 ng5 zit3) is Dragon Boat festival. I like Dragon Boat festival because it’s a very lively event and I like the food that we eat on this day and I think we will find out what it is.
端午節 (dyun1 ng5 zit3) is Dragon Boat festival. Dragon Boat festival is on the 5th day of the 5th month on lunar calendar. In 2015, it’s going to be on 20th of June. So it is different every year, check the lunar calendar.
端午節就嚟到,所以周圍都有糭買。(dyun1 ng5 zit3 zau6 lei4 dou3, so2 ji3 zau1 wai4 dou1 jau5 zung2 maai5.) “It’s almost Dragon Boat festival. So we can buy rice dumplings everywhere.”
糭 (zung2) is rice dumpling. 糭 (zung2) is glutinous rice with pork usually, and sometimes with egg yolk stuffed in bamboo leaves or reed leaves and then we steam it before eating it; and there is a sweet version as well. So savory or sweet, it’s your choice.
我鍾意端午節,因為可以食糭。(ngo5 zung1 ji3 dyun1 ng5 zit3, jan1 wai6 ho2 ji3 sik6 zung2.) “I like dragon boat festival because I can eat rice dumplings”, yeah. I am all about the food.
龍舟 (lung4 zau1) is dragon boat. 龍 (lung4) is dragon and boat is 舟 (zau1). So 龍舟 (lung4 zau1) dragon boat, we roll the dragon boat on dragon boat festival. Well, not everybody but some people are trained for it and it is international competition now.
龍舟比賽好刺激!(lung4 zau1 bei2 coi3 hou2 ci3 gik1!) “Dragon boat race is very exciting”. You should see it sometime.
游水 (jau4 seoi2) is swim or swimming. It is common for people to go swimming on Dragon Boat festival. I am not quite sure why. Maybe the weather is perfect or something to do about getting into the water. One other stories of the origin is that an ancient Chinese poet killed himself, he threw himself in the river. So people will try to look for his body by rowing the boats around, making loud noises to scare the fishes and prawns away so they don’t eat the body. If you want to know why he killed himself, you should Google it or yeah you should look into it. It’s a very interesting story.
嘉年華 (gaa1 nin4 waa4) is carnival. We have a lot of carnivals around town on Dragon boat festival because people go to the Harbor site to watch the Dragon boat races around Victoria Harbor or Sai Kung area or Lantau Island, they have a lot of Dragon Boat race and carnival. You can bring your family there and they have performance and like street food. It’s pretty cool, yeah. So that’s it for today. In this video, we talked about Dragon Boat race and I will see you next time at Cantonese holiday words. I am Olivia, bye! 下次見! (haa6 ci3 gin3!)

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