1, the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the Qu Yuan said

According to legend, in 278 BC, the Qin army broke through the capital of Chu, Qu Yuan saw his motherland was invaded, and always can not bear to give up their motherland, on the fifth of May, in the write down of the last pen, "Wyatt Sand," after the stone cast Miluo River to kill themselves.

After Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, the local people, in order to send their condolences, swung their boats on the river, which gradually developed into a dragon boat race. The people are afraid of the river fish eat his body, they have to go home to bring the rice ball into the river, so as to avoid fish and shrimp spoiled Qu Yuan's body, and later became the custom of eating dumplings.

2, the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Wu Zixu

The second legend of the Dragon Boat Festival, is the fifth of May to commemorate the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476 years ago) Wu Zixu. After Wu Zixu cut his own throat and died, Fu Zhai was so angry that he ordered his body to be put into leather and thrown into the river on the 5th day of the 5th month, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also said to be a day to honor Wu Zixu.

3, Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the filial daughter of Cao E

The third legend of the Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate the filial daughter of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao E to save her father from drowning in the river. Cao E's father drowned in the river, a few days no body, filial daughter Cao E day and night along the river crying. After 17 days, she threw herself into the river on May 5, and five days later, she carried out her father's body.

This is a myth that has been passed down to the governor of the county, who made Dushan erect a monument to his disciple, Handan Chun, to eulogize him. Therefore, it is said that the Dragon Boat Festival is also a day to commemorate Cao E, a filial daughter.

4, Dragon Boat Festival originated in the ancient Vietnamese national totem festival

Many recent excavations and archaeological research has confirmed that: the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the Neolithic era, there is a geometric print pottery as a characteristic of the cultural remains. The ethnicity of the remains, according to experts, is inferred to be a tribe that worshiped the totem of the dragon, historically known as the Baiyue.

The decorations on the unearthed pottery and the historical legends show that they had the custom of cutting off their hair and tattooing, lived in the watery countryside, and compared themselves to the descendants of the dragon. The tools of production, a large number of stone tools, but also shovels, chisels and other small pieces of bronze. Among the altar pots and jars used as household items, the printed ceramic tripod for cooking food is unique to them and is one of the symbols of their community.

There were still Baiyue people in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the Dragon Boat Festival was created by them as a festival to honor their ancestors. Over thousands of years of history, most of the Baiyue people have been integrated into the Han Chinese, while the rest have evolved into many ethnic minorities in the south, making the Dragon Boat Festival a festival for the entire Chinese nation.