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T<br />
he Dragon Boat Festival is an international event<br />
drawing a score of locals and tourists alike. To the<br />
outsider, the festival appears to be about racing<br />
dragon-shaped boats. Not many people know<br />
that the Dragon Boat Festival is in fact a homage to a<br />
beloved poet who lived over 2,000 years ago. The festival<br />
originated as a search for his body.<br />
History and lore offer several competing theories on the<br />
origins of the Dragon Boat Festival. The stories involve a<br />
mix of everything — dragons, loyalty, spirits, and of course,<br />
food. Out of all these legends, one remains the most<br />
popular and widely accepted as the true origin story — the<br />
story of Qu-Yuan.<br />
The Dragon Boat Festival is over 2,000 years old. Many<br />
people believe the festival began during the period of the<br />
Warring States and, in particular, with Qu Yuan..<br />
During exile, Yuan wrote beautiful poems about his country<br />
— verses that sang praises of China and its beauty. But<br />
dark clouds loomed on the horizon for the kingdom when<br />
the Qin state conquered the Chu capital. A distraught Yuan<br />
committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.<br />
The grieving people of Chu set out in their boats to search<br />
for his body but to no avail. They rowed their boats up and<br />
down the river, continually beating drums and hitting the<br />
water with paddles to scare evil spirits away. Legend has<br />
it that they threw rice balls into the river so the fish would<br />
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