The purpose of making and eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan.

According to the "Biography of Qu Yuan Jia Sheng" in "Historical Records", Qu Yuan was a minister of King Huai of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He advocated the promotion of talents and empowerment, enriched the country and strengthened the military, and advocated uniting Qi to resist Qin. However, he was strongly opposed by the nobleman Zilan and others. Qu Yuan was dismissed from his post, expelled from the capital, and exiled to the Yuan and Xiang rivers.

In exile, he wrote immortal poems such as "Li Sao", "Heavenly Questions" and "Nine Songs", which were concerned about the country and the people. They are unique in style and have far-reaching influence (therefore, the Dragon Boat Festival is also called Poet's Day). In 278 B.C., the Qin Army conquered the capital of Chu.

Qu Yuan was heartbroken when he saw his homeland being invaded, but he still could not bear to abandon his homeland. On May 5, after writing his final work "Huaisha", he bouldered into the Miluo River. He died and composed a magnificent patriotic movement with his own life.

It is said that after Qu Yuan died, the people of Chu State were extremely sad and flocked to the Miluo River to pay their respects to Qu Yuan. The fishermen rowed their boats and fished for his true body back and forth on the river. A fisherman took out rice balls, eggs and other food prepared for Qu Yuan and threw them into the river "plop, plop", saying that when the fish, lobsters and crabs were full, they would not bite Dr. Qu's body.

People followed suit after seeing it. An old doctor took a jar of realgar wine and poured it into the river, saying it was to stun dragons and water animals so as not to harm Doctor Qu. Later, for fear that the rice balls would be eaten by dragons, people came up with the idea of ??wrapping the rice with neem leaves and wrapping it with colored silk, which developed into rice dumplings.

Extended information:

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese folk festival. It is one of the ancient traditional festivals of the Chinese nation. The Dragon Boat Festival is also called Dragon Boat Festival and Duanyang. In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many other names, such as: Noon Day Festival, Chongwu Festival, May Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Girl's Day, Tianzhong Festival, Poet's Day, Dragon Day and so on. Although the names are different, generally speaking, the festival customs of people in various places are more similar than different.

Celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional habit of the Chinese people for more than 2,000 years. Due to the vast territory, numerous ethnic groups, and many stories and legends, not only have many different festival names been produced, but there are also festivals in various places. Have different customs.

The main contents include: When the daughter returns to her parents’ home, she hangs a statue of Zhong Kui, welcomes the ghost ship, hides in the afternoon, puts up leaf talismans at noon, hangs calamus and mugwort, treats all diseases, wears sachets, and prepares sweet wine for sacrifices. Dragon boat races, martial arts competitions, batting, swinging, painting children with realgar, drinking realgar wine and calamus wine, and eating five poisonous cakes, salted eggs, rice dumplings and seasonal fresh fruits, etc.

Some activities, such as dragon boat racing, have achieved new development, breaking through time and geographical boundaries and becoming international sports events. There are many theories about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, such as: commemorating Qu Yuan; commemorating Wu Zixu; commemorating Cao E; starting from the Summer Solstice Festival of three generations; avoiding evil moons and evil days; Wu Yue national totem sacrifices; etc.

Each of the above statements has its own origin. According to more than 100 ancient book records and expert archaeological research listed in the "Dragon Boat Test" and "Dragon Boat History Education" by scholar Wen Yiduo, the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is a totem festival held by the Wuyue people in southern China in ancient China, earlier than Qu Yuan .

However, for thousands of years, Qu Yuan's patriotic spirit and touching poems have been widely rooted in the hearts of the people. Therefore, people "cherish and mourn them, discuss his words from generation to generation, and pass them on from generation to generation." Therefore, commemorating Qu Yuan's death It has the widest and deepest influence and occupies a mainstream position. In the field of folk culture, Chinese people associate dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival with the commemoration of Qu Yuan.

China.com-Introduction to Dragon Boat Festival