Thundering drums, yelling crowds and energetic, boatmen, such scenes of excitement (be) not rare across China on Duanwu, or Dragon Boat Festival, falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month each year.
Although tales of its origin differ, the two-thousand-year-old festival is widely celebrated memory of Qu Yuan, a great poet during the Warring States Period (475—221 BC).
When Qu realized his country's decline was beyond recovery, he became so unhappy that he killed (he) on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Legend has it that the (local) rowed boats to save the poet and threw zongzi, or sticky rice dumplings, into the river to keep fish from eating his body. tradition was passed down in China and even traveled across borders.
A host of other practices are also associated with Duanwu. The fifth day of the fifth month is considered unlucky and (poison). To drive away the bad luck, many people, (especial) those in South China, take herbal baths and hang special plants over their doors. Some people even wear little bags (stuff) with Chinese herbs, all with nice smells, (scare) away the bad spirits.
