Happy Father's Day

Father’s Day is normally celebrated on the 3 rd Sunday of June and this year it falls on the 17 th. Here’s wishing all you dads a very Happy Father’s Day. To salute all you fantastic guys I would like to share a little story with you. When I first started midwifery in 1972 fathers were just being allowed into the delivery rooms during the birth of their baby. One day I had a father who was very excited about seeing his baby come into the world. As I slowly delivered the baby’s head, I kept a running commentary about how much of the head can be seen with each push by the mother. He was very responsive for about 10 minutes and then there was silence. When I turned round to look at him, he had pushed the surgical mask up over his eyes!! And his face had turned quite pale. He never got to see the rest of the delivery.

Traditional festival

June 19 th is the fifth day of the Chinese lunar calendar and we celebrate the Bah Chang or Dragon Boat race festival on this day. This festival commemorates the death of Chu Yuan, a poet and statesman of the 4 th century BC; who drowned himself in protest against political corruption. Fishermen raced in their boats to save him but they were too late. According to legend, the people made glutinous rice dumplings with savoury meat filling wrapped in bamboo leaves called bah chang and threw them in the river to prevent the fish from eating his body. Since then, on the anniversary of his death, we celebrate by having a bah chang feast. In Penang and Singapore there is the annual Dragon Boat Race.

Pictures of my mother making bah chang (rice dumplings)
Fold the leaves	Put in a little rice	Add the filling
Add more filling	Top up with more rice	Close the top
Fold over the leaves	The last fold	Secure with string
Make a knot	One completed bah chang	Second completed chang
Boil them	Cooked bah chang	Ready to eat bah chang

An old superstition says that rice dumplings will not cook properly if a pregnant woman enters the kitchen while they are being cooked.

Did you know that this is also the day that the Chinese sprinkle rice wine around the house to prevent snakes coming into the house? According to legend, this is the day when the infamous Madame White Snake invoked a great flood in order to get back her human husband from the abbot who lived at the top of the mountains.