Dragon Boat Festival

Approximately half a month later,the Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, which dates back to Warring States Period. It is a festival in memory of a well-loved Chinese poet  QuYuan.

A long time ago, there was a well-known poet named QuYuan. He was one of the emperor's most royal servants. However, the emperor's advisors were jealous of him. what's worse, they said terrible things to make him look bad. Unfortunately, the emperor believed them and forced the poet to return to his village. Upset about losing the emperor's trust, QuYuan made a decision to end his own life. Therefore, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month,he jumped into the Milo River and drowned himself.

Local residents rowed boats to salvage him and dropped rice balls into the river to distract fish's attention from Qu's body. It was said that then the fish would eat the rice instead of the spirit of Qu. Later people memorialized QuYuan by rowing and making Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival. That's how the tradition of Dragon Boat Racing and eating Zongzi were started.

Of course, nowadays people have a variety of other activities to celebrate this traditional festival.Customs to repel evil include hanging certain plants believed to bring luck, such as calamus or mugwort in the family home to escape bad luck.In some places,people will drink a potent local brew called realgar.

Amongst those activities ,as for me, I am fond of eating Zongzi on that day,haha~