In recent years, archaeological studies and a number of unearthed cultural relics have proved that the festival started from a kind of totemic worship among the ancient Wu and Yue people in south China about 4 or 5 thousand years ago and the custom gradually spread to the north after the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).

Before the Wu and Yue people, the Huaxia people (Chinese ancestors) regarded the dragon as the totem of their tribes, and considered the dragon as the most powerful divinity. To a greater extent, people thought the leaders of their tribes are the incarnation of the dragon. Up to today, the Chinese have called themselves “the descendants of the dragon”.

On the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, a grand sacrificial ceremony for the totem of the dragon was held by the Wu and Yue people, who stuffed bamboo tubes with all kinds of food into the river as offering to the divine dragon. They also carved boats in the shape of dragon and held boat race. However, for thousand years, people have always believed in the legends that associated the origin of the festival with the commemoration of Qu Yuan. Keeping these legends is embodied with profound meanings.