What’s that you see? Is that really an egg standing on one end? To see is to believe! Before we go to the story of the “standing egg,” let me share a segment from: http://www.whatsonwhen.com/sisp/index.htm
Dragon Boat Festival
When: Jun 2012 (annual)
where: Taiwan
Cheering crowds gather to watch ornately carved boats compete in vibrant dragon boat races. The festival is a nationwide celebration held in honour of the poet Qu Yuan. Popular spots to see the fast-paced spectacle are Lugang and the capital, Taipei.
Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Mi Lo River during the 3rd century BC to protest against the then corrupt government.
When the local fishermen learnt of the poet’s demise, they trawled the waters to find him. They were unsuccessful, so threw rice dumplings into the sea and thumped the water with their paddles to distract the piranhas from the poet’s body. An important part of today’s celebrations is eating zongzi, pyramid-shaped dumplings made of glutinous rice.
A lesser known legend about this festival is the “standing egg” phenomenon. When my Taiwanese friend first told me about this, I did not believe it. That was until around 8 years ago when I tried this in my kitchen. I was able to do it, and so did my son. Here are some photos I took last year when I remembered to try it again in our present home. It didn’t matter whether I did it on the first floor (8 years ago), or on the 10th floor (our present apartment).
How to do this:
On June 23, 2012 (Dragon Boat Festival this year, which changes every year), at exactly 12 o’clock noon, start letting the eggs stand on one end. Now, I don’t know if this works only for Taiwan time or for different times around the world. What’s really cool is if everyone who reads this post will try to stand an egg on one end on June 23, 2012 @ 12:00 noon their time and report their results here. That would be awesome.
I will start my daily posts (except Sundays my day of rest) with a countdown to June 23 based on Taiwan time. This will be fun!
For starters, 21 days to go (Taiwan time)!
Have an awesome weekend everyone!
jimmyandcha 