Dragon Boat Festival and Egg Standing

This is a 1960's class photo in the Methodist Secondary School, Sibu. Sitting in the front row were our expat teachers,then, American Missionary Mr. Temple), British Missionary (Mr. Wiltshire, Mr. Reasbeck) and Indian Christian teachers (Mr and Mrs. Kuruvilla).The late Mr. Lau Tieng Sing was also an exceptional leader and teacher. All were very strong Christians and scientific minded. They were really the best teachers any one could have.

When we had the egg standing experiment, many of the expat teachers had already left by then.

I cannot remember when we started making eggs stand up on cement floors, in basketball courts, tennis courts, in the Dewan Suarah front court, or other places in Sibu. But I remember we tried to convince our American missionary teacher ,43 years ago, that it was possible - during the Dragon Boat Festival. We had a bit of cross cultural differences in our science classes. We had to convince our Indian teachers what we believed in too. And the very educated expat teachers also had to convince us about other scientific principles. But on the whole all the lively, democratic, scientific debate was good for us.They had indeed produced a large number of scientists amongst us.


For egg standing belief on that fateful day, we used about five eggs only - as only five teachers and students were keen enough to take the challenge then. Well, four stood up and one did not. And we sighed a sigh of relief. Many of the other teachers were not excited at all. They went on with their own chores. No big deal. Bu yong da jin siaw guai. Perhaps present day students are a little different. They love the gaiety of the event. the more eggs , the merrier. Not so much the scientific debate.

I still do not have the scientific explanation to egg standing.

But what is important is that teachers and students collaborate to make teacheable moments memorable. There were so many teachable moments in our lives in Methodist School. Just like to say thanks to all of them.

Here's an article from The China Post ,Taiwan. Came in through the Internet.

Residents in Chiayi County yesterday set a new world "egg standing" record after close to 2,000 eggs stood vertically at noon to mark the "summer solstice" on traditional Chinese calendar.

Sponsored by the Chiayi County Government, a huge crowd of people taking part in the event successfully made 1,972 eggs "stand up" simultaneously.

The figure eclipsed the previous Guiness World Record of 1,290 "standing eggs" set at the Brigham Young University in Utah State of the U.S. on March 5, 2003.

Several lawmakers, lawyers, and representatives from Guinness Publishing Ltd. were among the witnesses to enter the feat into the Guinness Book of Records.

According to the rules, all eggs used in the events had to be fresh without cracks. The eggs could only be placed on the smooth and gleaming surface like ceramic tiles and participants are not allowed to help each other.

Chiayi sponsored the event because the Tropic of Cancer -- latitude of 23.5 degrees north -- passes right through the county, which was unfortunately devastated by flood last week.

The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the sun in relation to the celestial equator. The summer solstice is the date with the longest day and hence with the shortest night. This date usually falls near June 21 (in the Northern hemisphere) or Dec. 21 (in the Southern hemisphere).

At the time of solstice, the earth is in that point of its orbit at which the hemisphere in question is most tilted towards the sun, causing the sun to appear at its farthest above the celestial equator when viewed from earth.

County chief Chen Ming-wen also dedicated the newly constructed Astronomical Plaza, which will enhance other educational and recreational facilities, including Solar Hall, the Astronomical Science Hall, Tungshih Fishermen's Pier, plus the Alishan (Mt. Ali) scenic park.