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Dragon Boat Festival and its tragic origins

In ancient time, there was a great poet called Qu Yuan. He couldn’t bear the anguish when his mother land was invaded, so he drowned himself in the river. Local residents rode boats to salvage and drop the rice balls into the river to distract fishes’ attention from Qu’ body. 

Later people memorialized Qu’s patriotism by rowing and making Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, Duanwujie. That’s how the radiation of dragon boat racing and eating Zongzi were started.

A nation practice on Duanwujie is to put wormwood on the front door to repel evil things. In some places people drink realgar wine and children wear sachet. Now the family gets together on Duanwujie. Nowadays people have a variety of other activities to celebrate this traditional festival.