It is said that the custom to eat chimaki on that day is originated from the fact that the patriot poet Qu Yuan of the Chu dynasty in the Warring states period (China) died on May 5 and people who loved and respected him threw chimaki into the Miluo river where he jumped into, in order to calm down his soul and as bait for fish so the fish would not eat his body.
粽を食べるのは、中国戦国時代(中国)の楚の愛国詩人屈原の命日である5月5日に彼を慕う人々が彼が身を投げた汨羅江（べきらこう）に粽を投げ入れて供養したこと、また、屈原の亡骸を魚が食らわないよう魚の餌としたものがちまきの由来とされる。