Dragon Boat Festival (the 5^th day of the 5^th lunar month)

This is also known as Double Fifth Day. People eat rice cakes and hold dragon boat races to commemorate the ancient scholar—statesman Qu Yuan. The story tells that Qu Yuan was an upright man and a famous scholar. Other government officials envied him and they made up groundless stories about him and convinced the emperor that Qu Yuan was unfaithful the emperor was annoyed and Qu Yuan was exiled. He lived a life of a hermit and became an excellent poet. But he became so discouraged that he commit suicide by throwing himself into the river. The people knew that he was an upright man, so they rushed out in their boats to try to save him. The boat races commemorate this attempt. Also, people were so sad that they threw rice in the water to feed his ghost. The spirit of Qu Yuan appeared to people and said that the rice had been eaten by the turtles and fish, so people wrapped it up in bamboo leaves and tied with thread. It is called Zongzi.