Lev: It's said we are going to have a day off next week because of the Dragon Boat Festival. What is it?
莱芙：据说下周因为端午节我们要放假一天，端午节是怎么回事啊？
Yao: Oh, that's a very old tradition. Dragon Boat Festival has a history of over 2000 years. Allegedly it's to commemorate the great poet Qu Yuan in the Warring State Period.
姚：端午节是个非常古老的传统节日，有两千多年的历史呢。据说这一节日是为了纪念战国时期伟大的诗人屈原。
Lev: A day to honor a poet?
莱芙：一位诗人的纪念日？
Yao: Yes. He was a statesman too. And after he was banished by his King when he fell out of favor, this very poet wrote a long poem named Li Sao, meaning 'the lament' and other series of poems which are still classics. After hearing that the capital of his country was breached by the enemy, he drowned himself in the river on the fifth of May.
姚：是的，而且他还是个政治家。他在失去君王的宠信后遭到流放，写了一首名为《离骚》的哀歌长诗以及其他系列诗作，如今这些诗已被奉为经典。听说本国都城被敌国所破，他在五月初五这天投河而死。
Lev: That's tragic.
莱芙：好悲惨。
Yao: So people rowed dragon boats up and down the river to look for his body, and this has become dragon boat racing today. Also, to prevent his body from being eaten by fish in the river, they threw glutinous rice into it.
姚：于是人们划着龙舟沿河打捞他的尸体，就成了现在的赛龙舟。而且为了不让他的尸体被河中的鱼啃食，人们还往其中投入糯米。
Lev: Do they still do that nowadays?
莱芙：现在他们还会这样做吗？
Yao: No, but we eat a kind of dumpling with glutinous rice in it, in the shape of a pyramid called "zongzi".
姚：现在不会了，但是我们会吃糯米馅的，形状像金字塔的粽子。