1. Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu State during the Warring States Period. On the fifth day of May, Qu Yuan threw a big stone into the river. In order to prevent fish and shrimp from biting Qu Yuan's body, Chu people put rice in bamboo tubes and threw it into the river to attract fish and shrimp. Later, in order to show respect and memory for Chu doctor Qu Yuan, Chu people filled bamboo tubes with rice every year and threw them into the river for sacrifice, which is also the origin of the earliest zongzi.

The earliest zongzi was not made of leaves as we see now, but made of bamboo tubes. The ancients also gave more insights and contents to the Dragon Boat Festival. When offering sacrifices to Qu Yuan, they were worried that the bamboo rice thrown into the river would be stolen by the dragon in the river, so the variety of zongzi was rich. The ancients thought that dragons were afraid of neem leaves and colorful silk threads, so they wrapped rice with neem leaves, tied it with green silk, and threw it into the river.