端午亦称端五，是我国最大的传统节日之一。“端”的意思和“初”相同，称“端五”也就如称“初五”；“端五”的“五”字又与“午”相通，按地支顺序推算，五月正“午”月。又因午时为“阳辰”，所以端五也叫“端阳”。五月初五，月、日都是五，故称重五，也称重午。此外，端午还有许多别称，如：夏节、浴兰节、女儿节、天中节、地腊、诗人节等等。端午节的别称之多，间接说明了端午节俗起源的歧出。时至今日至少有四、五种说法，诸如：纪念屈原说；吴越民族图腾祭说；起于三代夏至节说；恶月恶日驱避说，等等。
Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu, is one of the largest traditional festivals in China. The meaning of "Duan" is the same as that of "Chu". The name of "Duan five" is just like that of "Chu five"; the word of "Duan five" is connected with "Wu". It is calculated according to the order of branches, and the month of "Wu" is in May. And because the noon is "Yang Chen", the end of the five is also called "Duanyang". On the fifth day of May, both the month and the day are five, so it's called Chongwu, also known as Chongwu. In addition, Dragon Boat Festival has many other names, such as summer festival, Yulan Festival, daughter's day, Tianzhong Festival, Dila Festival, poet's day and so on. There are so many other names of Dragon Boat Festival, which indirectly explains the difference of the origin of the custom of Dragon Boat Festival. Up to now, there are at least four or five kinds of theories, such as: the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan; the theory of totem sacrifice of Wu and Yue nationalities; the theory of three generations of summer solstice; the theory of evil moon and evil day repelling, and so on.
其中影响最广的端午起源的观点是纪念屈原说。在民俗文化领域，我国民众把端午节的龙舟竞渡和吃粽子都与屈原联系起来。传说屈原投江以后，当地人民伤其死，便架舟奋力营救，因有竞渡风俗；又说人们常放食品到水中致祭屈原，但多为蛟龙所食，后来改用楝树叶包饭，外缠彩丝，做成后来的粽子样子。
The most influential view of the origin of Dragon Boat Festival is to commemorate Qu Yuan's theory. In the field of folk culture, the Dragon Boat Race and eating zongzi in the Dragon Boat Festival are all connected with Qu Yuan. It is said that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the local people hurt him and died, so they set up boats to rescue him. Because of the custom of race, they said that people often put food into the water to sacrifice Qu Yuan, but most of it was eaten by Jiaolong. Later, they used neem leaves to wrap rice, wrapped with colored silk, to make zongzi.