There's a raft of legends about the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on Thursday. It's about dragons, dumplings, a drowned poet, amulets, exorcists and a slug of arsenic wine.
The familiar smell of zongzi (rice dumplings) is wafting over the city, reminding locals of the Dragon Boat Festival on Thursday. Falling on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the festival is also known as Duanwu or Double Fifth and its origins lie deep in ancient folk religion.
It occurs around the time of the summer solstice and is associated with warding off evil, disease and pestilence that come with warm weather.
There's a raft of legends about the Dragon Boat Festival, yet today most people think only of poet Qu Yuan and zongzi.
Qu was a patriotic minister who died on that day in 278 BC in the Warring States Period (476-221 BC). He is said to have thrown himself into the Miluo River in despair when hearing that his kingdom had been defeated. His prediction of doom had come to pass as the emperor had ignored his sage advice to stand and fight the enemy.
Qu had been branded a traitor and banished, but he was beloved by the common people as he was honorable and fought corruption.
On hearing of Qu's death, fishing boats rushed to recover his body and people threw rice (today's zongzi) and eggs into the water in hopes that the water dragons and fish would eat them instead of the poet. There was a great commotion (today's firecrackers).
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