What is the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival？

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The Dragon Boat Festival or Duanwu Festival commemorates Qu Yuan，a patriotic poet from the State of Chu during the Warring States Period.There Qu Yuan proposed a series of progressive reforms，including domestic politicalreforms and a legal system set-up，but forces of corruption，represented by Jin Shang who opposed Qu Yuan，led the king not to trust him.Qu Yuan had to leave the capital and began a wandering life.With patriotic fervor，Qu Yuan produced many odes to display his concern for the fate of his state and people.

In 278B.C.，when the Qin troops stormed the capital，and the downfall of Chu was expected at any moment，he took a rock in his arms and drowned himself in the Miluo River near the present-day Changsha.He chose not to live and see that hisstate to be vanquished by the enemy.When the news of his death came，the local people rushed to the scene and rowed boats along the river in an attempt to find hi remains，but they were never recovered.The people of Chu mourned his death，and every year afterwards they threw bamboo tubes filled with rice into the river as a sacrifice to him.This is supposed to be the origin of the custom of rowing dragon boats and eating zong-zi on the Dragon Boat Festival .

What is the origin of zong-zi？

Zong-zi is glutinous rice wrapped in reed leaves.One story tells about why rice is wrapped this way.During the Eastern Han Dynasty，there lived in Changsha a man named Ou Hui，who one day chanced to meet a man who called himself the Minister in Charge of the Affairs of Three Aristocratic Families. This man told Ou Hui，“It is very good of you to offer me gifts of rice，but most of them are stolen and devoured by the river dragon.In the future，please wrap them up in chinaberry leaves and tie them up with color threads.The leaves and threads will scare away the dragon，and he will never touch them again.”People did as they were told，and this is why zong-zi is made the way as it is.