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What is the Dragon Boat Festival?
There are nine theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. The first view is that the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan. The second theory holds that Tang Xuanzong was born on the fifth day of the eighth lunar month in Li Longji, and the Dragon Boat Festival is to celebrate his birthday. The third theory holds that the Dragon Boat Festival is the birthday of the dragon, which originated from the totem festival held by Wu Yue people. The fourth said it was in memory of Wu Zixu. The fifth theory holds that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the summer solstice festival in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. The sixth theory holds that the Dragon Boat Festival originated from the sun, and many customs of the Dragon Boat Festival are to ward off evil spirits. The seventh theory holds that the Dragon Boat Festival has different meanings in the south and the north. The South commemorates Qu Yuan and the North celebrates the Spring Festival. Eight is to commemorate the four heroes who robbed the rich and helped the poor in Mianyang. The ninth view holds that it originated in memory of Cao E, the filial daughter of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Of course, the most popular and generally accepted is the first statement:

According to Records of the Historian Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng, Qu Yuan was a minister of Chu Huaiwang in the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated the use of talents, empowerment, and prosperity, and advocated joint resistance to Qin, which was strongly opposed by others. Qu Yuan was forced to leave his post, was driven out of the capital and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang river basins. During his exile, he wrote immortal poems such as Li Sao, Tian Wen and Jiu Ge, with unique style and far-reaching influence. Therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Poet's Day. In 278 BC, Qin Jun conquered Kyoto of Chu. Seeing that his motherland was invaded, Qu Yuan was heartbroken, but he was always reluctant to give up his motherland. On May 5th, after writing his masterpiece Huai Sha, he died in Miluo River and wrote a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.

Legend has it that after Qu Yuan's death, the people of Chu were so sad that they flocked to the Miluo River to pay homage to Qu Yuan. The fisherman paddled the boat and fished for his real body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out rice balls, eggs and other foods prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river, saying that ichthyosaurs, shrimps and crabs were full and would not bite the doctor. People followed suit after seeing it. An old doctor took an altar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying that he would stun the dragon water beast with medicine so as not to hurt Dr. Qu. Later, people were afraid that rice balls would be eaten by dragons, so they came up with the method of wrapping rice with neem leaves, reed leaves or lotus leaves, and then wrapping it with colored silk, and developed zongzi.

Since then, on the fifth day of May every year, there has been the custom of dragon boat racing, eating zongzi and drinking realgar wine in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.