The fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, and the folk have the habit of eating zongzi, which, according to the legend, is to commemorate Qu Yuan, a minister of the Chu state during the Warring States period.

Qu Yuan was a great patriotic poet in China, who actively advocated that the state of Chu should unite with the state of Qi to fight against the state of Qin, but his views were not adopted, instead, he was dismissed from his official position and sent to a remote place.

When the state of Chu was about to fall, Qu Yuan committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

After Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, the people of Chu threw delicious food into the river in order to prevent the fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs in the river from eating Qu Yuan's body. In this way, year after year, the people in order to honor the patriotic poet, every Dragon Boat Festival day, they will throw food into the river to worship Qu Yuan.

One night, an old man dreamed of Qu Yuan and asked him, "We threw so much food into the river for you, did you eat it?" Qu Yuan said, "All the food you gave me was eaten by the fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs." The old man asked "How can I not be eaten by them?"

Qu Yuan said, "Wrap the rice in bamboo leaves and make it into a rhombus-shaped zongzi, so that they will not dare to eat it if they think it is a rhombus."

The next year's Dragon Boat Festival, the people followed what Qu Yuan said and threw the sharp-angled dumplings into the Miluo River. However, after the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan sent another dream to the old man, saying, "Thank you for sending me so many zongzi to eat. But most of them were still eaten by fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs."

The old man asked Qu Yuan, "What else can be done?"

Qu Yuan said, "The boat delivering the zongzi should be dressed up as a dragon, because the fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs are under the jurisdiction of the dragon, and they don't dare to eat the king of the dragon."

From then on, every year on the Dragon Boat Festival, people rowed dragon boats to Miluo River to send zongzi. This is the origin of eating rice dumplings and rowing dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival