In our country, celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival has been a traditional custom for more than two thousand years. There are many customs on the Dragon Boat Festival. Eating rice dumplings and racing dragon boats are two of the important Dragon Boat Festival customs.

?1. Eating Zongzi

?Zongzi was not invented to commemorate Qu Yuan or Jie Zitui.

According to records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, rice was wrapped in wild rice leaves (wild rice leaves) into the shape of horns, which was called "horn millet"; rice was packed in bamboo tubes, sealed and roasted, called "tube rice dumplings". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in wild rice leaves into a square shape and cooked to become Guangdong alkaline rice dumplings.

?Initially, rice dumplings were used to worship ancestors and gods. In the Jin Dynasty, rice dumplings were officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. The legend is spread in memory of Qu Yuan, and some say it is in memory of Jie Zitui. No matter what the reason is, Zongzi is one of the traditional foods with the deepest cultural heritage in Chinese history. For thousands of years, the custom of eating Zongzi has been popular in China and has spread to North Korea, Japan and other Southeast Asian countries. "Datang Zongzi" is recorded in Japanese literature.

?To this day, every year at the beginning of the fifth lunar month, Chinese people soak glutinous rice, wash rice dumpling leaves, and make rice dumplings, with more varieties of colors. In terms of fillings, Beijing jujube rice dumplings mostly contain jujubes in the north; in the south, there are various fillings such as bean paste, fresh meat, ham, and egg yolks, among which Jiaxing rice dumplings in Zhejiang are the representative ones.

?2. Dragon Boat Racing

?According to legend, it originated from the ancient times when people from Chu State were reluctant to leave their virtuous minister Qu Yuan and threw himself into the river. Many people rowed boats to chase and save him. They scrambled to catch up and disappeared when they reached Dongting Lake. After that, dragon boat racing was held every May 5th to commemorate the event. He rowed dragon boats to disperse the fish in the river to prevent them from eating Qu Yuan's body. The custom of racing was popular in Wu, Yue and Chu.

?In fact, "dragon boat racing" has been around since the Warring States Period. Carving a canoe into the shape of a dragon amidst the sound of drums and playing a boat racing game to entertain gods and people is a semi-religious and semi-entertaining program in the ritual. Dragon boat racing has also been introduced to neighboring countries such as Japan, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. In 1980, dragon boat racing was included in China's national sports competitions, and the "Qu Yuan Cup" dragon boat race is held every year.