The Dragon Boat Festival is a major Chinese holiday and is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of the Chinese calendar.
People usually celebrate the festival by eating zongzi, or triangular glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves. These days zongzi come with a countless choice of fillings, including the traditional meat, mushroom, shrimp or red bean and innovative flavors like sour plum or coffee à la starbucks.
There are also Dragon Boat races throughout Asia. Dragon boats are the long colorful canoe-type boats that have a carved dragon on one end and a tail on the other. Boats can have crews from 10 to 50 paddlers, depending on the size. Dragon Boat races have been occurring for 2,000 years, and became an international sport in 1976 in Hong Kong.
Now you may wonder, why have the Chinese been racing dragon boats and eating zongzi for the past 2,000 years? These traditions were all to commemorate the suicide of a patriotic poet Chu Yuan who threw himself in a river in 3rd century BC. He was a top advisor to the king, but when the king did not take his advice, the king was later killed by an enemy and Chu killed himself. Chu's loyal supporters scattered rice into the water to prevent the fish from feasting on his body. Then they beat drums while paddling furiously on boats to try to keep evil spirits away from him. And today, these acts of loyalty have evolved into one of the major holidays for the ethnic Chinese. The Dragon Boat Festival also marks the beginning of summer.