As one of the biggest Chinese holidays, the Dragon Boat Festival has many different traditions. People eat zong'zi (sticky rice dumpling), drink realgar wine, go dragon boat racing, and do so much more to celebrate the holiday. While these traditions may seem all over the place, their origins can be neatly explained with a legend. I present to you: the Legend of Qu Yuan.

Every Dragon Boat Festival, a special food called 粽子 zong’zi (also known as rice dumplings) will appear in every Chinese household. In its simplest form, zong’zi is made by wrapping glutinous rice in big leaves and is cooked by boiling or steaming them in water. While this dish sounds simple enough, there is a lot of history and nuisances behind the zong’zi.

Dragon Boat Festival occurs on May 5th on the lunar calendar. It is believed that the yang (roughly “heat”) energy is the highest on this day of the year, making the herbs collected on the Dragon Boat Festival (especially at noon) super effective against diseases. At the same time, May is when the “five poisons” (scorpions, snakes, centipedes, geckos, and toads) begin to make their appearances. As such, a series of traditions was developed to protect people from these “poisons”.

端午节 (duān wǔ jié) is one of the major Chinese holidays. While the literal translation of the holiday is “The Festival on the Fifth Day of May (on the lunar calendar)”, it is more commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival, named after the main event of the holiday: dragon boat racing.