端午節

if you are curious as to how the rice dumpling came about, here’s a quick history lesson. it all started with qu yuan.

qu yuan (340-278 b.c.) was a beloved poet and minister that served the zhou dynasty in ancient china. despite his efforts to rid the government of corruption, he was wrongfully banished by the king. when the state’s capital fell to the qin, he drowned himself out of despair in a river on the fifth day of the fifth month.

the local people who were devoted to him could not find his body. they dropped rice dumplings into the river to feed the fishes so that they would leave his body intact, and even paddled out on boats to scare the fishes away! hence today, eating rice dumplings and dragon boat racing are done as a tribute to him.