The short story of eating rice dumplings at the Dragon Boat Festival is as follows:

After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, people missed him so much that on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, they would fill bamboo tubes with food and throw them into the water to offer sacrifices. To the Eastern Han Dynasty Jianwu years (22-55 years old), Changsha, a man called district back, suddenly saw the daytime Sanlu Da Fu Qu Yuan spirit, said that the sacrificial food was stolen by the dragon, and told him to throw again, must be wrapped in polygonum leaves, and then wrapped in the colorful threads, these things, the dragon is afraid of the scaly, will not eat. The district back to this strange encounter told the townspeople, the townspeople will be according to the Qu Yuan command carefully made dumplings.

This custom has been carried on to this day. This miraculous legend was first written by the Liang Dynasty literary scholar Wu Jun as a novel of fantasy, which was collected in the "Continuation of Qi Harmonic Records". It shows that the dumplings are the sacrificial food for people to commemorate Qu Yuan, and later became the most important festival food for Dragon Boat Festival. As to why it is thrown into the water, one says that it is for Qu Yuan to eat, and the other says that the dumplings are thrown into the river to feed the dragon. That is to say specifically with dumplings to feed the dragon, so that it does not hurt Qu Yuan's body.

Customs of the Dragon Boat Festival

1, tie five-color silk thread.

In traditional Chinese culture, the five colors "green, red, white, black and yellow", which symbolize the five directions and five elements, are regarded as auspicious colors. On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, children tie threads of the five colors around their wrists and ankles to ensure their well-being.

2, drink Xionghuang wine.

The custom of drinking Xionghuang wine at the Dragon Boat Festival was extremely popular in the Yangtze River Basin region in ancient times. As the old saying goes, "Drinking Xionghuang wine will make all diseases go away".

3, dragon boat racing.

Dragon boat race is one of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival in China, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the most important festivals and folk activities, in the southern region of China is widespread in the north near the river and lake cities also have the custom of dragon boat race, and most of them are paddling the dry dragon boat in the form of dragon boat dance.

4, hanging moxa leaves calamus.

Duanwu Festival hanging calamus is to allow those infested with snakes, insects and ants around. Acorus calamus, in folklore, has been known as "mosquito repellent little hand" title.