As a part of the Dragon Boat Festival, people celebrate by wrapping and eating zongzi together with loved ones. These delicious sticky rice bundles wrapped in bamboo leaves will leave your stomach and heart filled with glee!
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WATCH: Click here to watch a zongzi making demonstration by teaching artist Sophia Hsu!
Check out the the full collection of games below!
Summer Festival Scavenger Hunt
Five-color bracelets, perfume pouches, and dragon boats, oh my! Learn more about the traditions that make up the Dragon Boat Festival on this fun scavenger hunt you can try from the comfort of your own home.
Pests Begone!
The Dragon Boat festival happens right around the beginning of hot summer weather! That’s when the Five Poisonous Pests (五毒) — the lizard, toad, centipede, spider, and scorpion—show up. Protect your home in this pest-catching game by filling up your jar with pests and setting them free outside! Be careful—don’t break your jar!
PLAY: Click here to download game instructions and pieces!
Double Fifth Fortunes
The Dragon Boat Festival, typically held in June, is considered one of the unluckiest days of the year. Fend off bad luck by catching lucky plants and herbs — like pomegranate flowers, Chinese ixora, and calamus — and avoiding the five poisonous pests in this digital game you’ll want to play more than once.
Can you hear the cheering, drums, and crashing of the waves? It’s almost time for the race! Guided by teaching artist Yu Rong, create a vivid Dragon Boat racing scene complete with an origami boat and a painted backdrop. Experiment with fun techniques like paper folding, blow painting, collage, and more!
What You’ll Need: Paper (can be recycled, at least one piece should be a square), pencil, glue stick or liquid glue, watercolors or tempera paint, a straw, several jars or cups with water, a paint brush (optional), masking tape (optional, but will help keep your workspace clean)
About the Teaching Artist
Yu Rong is a painter and a product designer who has exhibited paintings and wine goblet designs in the US, UK, Italy, and the Czech Republic. She is interested in designing products that are fun to use and creating paintings that are natural and true. She is currently a teaching artist at the Hope Garden Center and MOCA. She is also a member of the CREATE Council on the Arts in the Catskills New York and at Ceres gallery, a feminist, not-for-profit, alternative gallery in New York City, dedicated to the promotion of contemporary women in the arts. She was born in Sichuan and currently lives in New York City. Check out her work here: www.yurong.work.
Join comic artist Laura Gao in crafting Dragon Boat Scroll-y Comics! Perfect for kids and adults of all ages, attendees will go step-by-step in drawing their own dragon boat and creating an interactive comic that they can roll up into a magical scroll.
What You’ll Need: Paper, something to draw with (pencils, pens, markers, crayons, whatever you’d like), tape, and a cylindrical scroll holder (like a chopstick or extra pen/pencil)
About the Comic Artist
Laura Gao is the author and illustrator of the Indie Bestseller, Messy Roots. Born in Wuhan, China, Gao immigrated with their family to Coppell, Texas where their art career began by doodling on Pokémon cards. Their works have since blossomed to be featured on NPR, the MOCA in NYC, and most notably, their parents’ fridge. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Gao worked in San Francisco as a Product Manager until 2020, when they published a webcomic called “The Wuhan I Know” about their experiences with anti-Asian racism growing up and during COVID. After the comic went viral, they published their debut graphic memoir, Messy Roots, and are currently working on a second book.
“快! 快! Kuài! Kuài! Hurry! Hurry! Row faster!” These are the cheers you might hear at a dragon boat race. The Dragon Boat Festival marks the arrival of summer on the lunar calendar. During this storytime, we welcome dsummer together by learning about all the festivities this holiday has to offer in Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival by Sanmu Tang and Gung Ho! By Susan Hughes.
MAKE: Click here to create your very own dragon boat drum!
SING: Download the songs and sing along with us!
MOCA Family Festivals are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
