All you need to know about Dragon Boat Festival in Singapore

The primary dish or snack you'll find on Singaporean Chinese's tables during Dragon Boat Festival is likely the bak zhang or rice dumplings. Across dialect groups, bak zhang made by stuffing glutinous rice with various sweet or savoury fillings before wrapping it in bamboo leaves and steaming it. Cantonese dumplings have Chinese smoked sausage, beans and salted egg yolk; Hokkien dumplings are typically seasoned with five-spice powder and stuffed with marinated pork, mushrooms and chestnut; and the Nyonya bak zhang has minced meat with a distinctive blue pea-coloured tip. 

Have some fun with the family making your own bak zhang – getting the wrapping right certainly takes some skill. Otherwise, check out the best places to buy rice dumplings for delivery and takeaway in Singapore. 

Head down to spots like Kallang River or Bedok Reservoir and you might catch Singapore's dragon boaters practising on the waters. Like the fishermen who sailed dragon-shaped boats during the summer solstice to appease the river spirits, dragon boating today is carried out in slim and colourful dragon-painted boats.

Boaters aren't racing to save any drowned ministers these days, but they nevertheless draw on great strength, skill and coordination during these competitions. In Singapore, annual races are held over two days in July at Bedok Reservoir, Kallang River and the Gardens by the Bay Marina Channel. It was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, but there are hopes that the race can proceed this year on July 10 and 11.