Duān wǔ jié. In ancient times, there was a great poet called Qu Yuan. He couldn't bear the anguish when his mother land was invaded so he drowned himself in the river. Local residents rode boats to salvage him and drop the rice balls into the river to distract the fishes’ attention from Qu’s body. Later, people memorialized Qu’s patriotism by rowing and making tombs on the Dragon Boat Festival or duan wu jie. That's how the tradition of dragon boat racing and eating Zongzi was started. An ancient practice on Duan wu jie is to put wormwood on the front door to repel evil things. In some places people drink realgar wine and children wear sachets. Now the family gets together on Duan wu jie. Nowadays people have a variety of other activities to celebrate this traditional festival.