Nick Ive, a British editor with China Daily, poses for a photo with a plate of zongzi in Weihai, East China's Shandong province, on June 7, 2024. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"There are similarities to some British or European cultures where people pay homage to people who have done good things for the county to convey messages of goodness and doing the right thing," he said.

Ive cited D-Day as an example. "D-Day is for remembering those who fought against Nazi Germany during World War II," he said.

D-Day was the name given to June 6, 1944, the day on which the British, US and other Allied armies landed on the beaches at Normandy in northern France.