命题作文：端午节

Every year the Chinese celebrate a traditional holiday on the 5th of the fifth month on the Chinese calendar, do you know what it is? The Dragon Boat Festival! This festival is celebrated to honor the memory of Qu Yuan, an ancient Chinese patriotic poet who drowned himself for his country. People would make Zongzi,\-a ball of cooked, sticky rice with fillings wrapped in a bamboo leaf-and throw them in the river to have the fish eat that instead of Qu Yuan. The fifth month is also considered an unlucky month, and that natural disasters and illnesses are common in this month, so people would put calamus above their doors because calami look like swords and have a strong smell of garlic and are believed to be able to keep the bad spirits away.

The dragon boat festival occurs on June 25th, In 278 BC, the Qin State conquered the capital of Chu. On hearing of the defeat, Qu Yuan in great despair committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. Qu Yuan was greatly loved by the native people, and they threw cooked rice wrapped in a leaf in the river so that the fish would eat that and not Qu Yuan's body. Nowadays, we eat the cooked rice wrapped in a leaf, also called zong zi. Sometimes meat or red dates are added in, and when you unwrap the leaf you can smell the shiny white rice infused with the refreshing smell of leaves, and it is normally dipped in sugar for flavour.