The Origin of Dragon Boat
龙舟的起源
The dragon boat race is mainly popular in the south of China，where water in rivers and lakes is plentiful. The custom has a legend behind. The wide-spread legend says that when Qu Yuan,a great patriotic poet of the States of Chu (present Hubei Province) in the period of the Warring States (475-221B. C.), drowned himself in the Miluo River of present Hubei for his motherland on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in 278 B. C. ,the local people boated down the river retrieving his corpse. They were joined by fishermen who were fishing in boats on Dongting Lake in present Hubei when they came to the lake. Since then the dragon boat race has been held to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.
龙舟竞渡主要流行于中国南方，那里河流和湖泊水量充足。这个习俗背后有一个传奇的故事。在广泛的传说中，当屈原，战国时期楚国（今湖北省）（475-公元前221）的伟大的爱国诗人，跳入目前湖北的汨罗江为他的国家在公元前278年的农历正月的第5天，当地群众运来船取回他的尸体。这些在船洞庭湖目前湖北捕鱼的渔民来到湖边加入。自那时以来，就已举办龙舟赛来庆祝端午节。
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