Dumpling (Dragon Boat) Festival

This nationwide festival has been already described in other chapters, of course, but there are regional differences to be found in the celebrations. Legend tells us that Qu Yuan, a high-ranking official of the Zhou dynasty, was slandered by corrupt officials and threw himself into a river, but the people of his village, learning of this, searched the river in boats trying to find him, to no avail. They threw rice into the river so he would not go hungry in the next life, and to stop the rice being eaten by fish, they wrapped the food in leaves wound with silk thread.