The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (Chinese: 屈原) (c. 340 BCE – 278 BCE) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty.[5] A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason.[5] During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw lumps of rice into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body.[5] This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
We headed off to Jinji Lake at about 9am to watch the races. Unfortunately it was drizzling rain and it was cooler out than how we dresssed. In all though, the event was OK. The boys had a good time running around, but they really didn’t watch much of the races unless one of the boats tipped over (which happened twice). The zongzi we purchased and steamed at home were also a bust with everyone but me and Riley, so we suplimented dinner with left over pizza. Below are a few pictures commemorating the events of the day; unfortunately Reid was running around too much to be photographed.
A decent example of a dragon boat.
A shot of the expat women winning their race, as they do every year from what I understand. Also, in the background the two buildings under construction will eventually be joined at the top. Nothing says classy like a big pair of pants on your skyline.
Rowan huddled in his friends jacket for warmth.
A lot of the local flora at the industrial park we live in is the same as what you encounter on the East Coast of the U.S. Note the crepe myrtles in the foreground. Riley is taking a closer look at the boxwood in the background to determine if it is that same variety as what we saw in Williamsburg. I'm a bad father, but maybe his future wife will thank me for keeping his ego in check. What's truly funny is that when you live in China, you wouldn't see anything out of place in this picture.
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