One interesting household legend that many know about this festival is the romantic tale of the white snake turing into a maiden, going to West Lake in Hangzhou and falling in love with Xu Xian (许仙). 

 

The Dragon Boat Festival is called 端午节 (duān wǔ jié) in Chinese. It falls on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar, therefore, it changes every year.

Though there are many theories on how this holiday originated, the most popular one is that of patriotic poet Qu Yuan (屈原) and his suicide in 278 BCE during the Warring States Period in China. Qu Yuan was from the State of Chu (one of seven states) who was exiled by the King.

In exile, he wrote many famous poems, including Li Sao, reflecting the love and passion he had for his country. It was when another state, the State of Qin, captured the capital of of Chu that Qu Yuan drown himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. He was protesting the corruption of that era, refusing to see his country occupied and conquered by the State of Qin.

The people who admired and respected him from the village paddled out in their boats to look for his body in the river. They also threw in rice wrapped in bamboo leaves (粽子 – zòng zi) to feed the fish. This way, the fish would eat the rice instead of Qu Yuan’s body.

Later, the people kept throwing in the 粽子 on the fifth day of the fifth month as a way of paying their respects to the poet. This is where and how the Dragon Boat Festival, sometimes called Poet’s Day (since Qu Yuan was a poet) started.

Other activities include: hanging mugwort leaves and calamus to discourage disease, taking long walks as well as trying to stand an egg up at exactly noon. If one is successful in having the egg stand up on its tip, they will have good luck in the coming year.