The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month on the traditional Chinese calendar. The festival can be traced back more than 2,000 years and legends about its origins abound.
The most well-known is that the festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and minister living in the Warring States period some 2,300 years ago. Distraught over the invasion of his homeland, Qu threw himself into a river in despair. Local people racing out in boats to save him is said to be the origin of dragon boat races. When they were unable to find him, they threw balls of sticky rice into the river, hoping the fish would eat the rice instead of his body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi—sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves—that are now enjoyed during the festival. The festival, a public holiday in China, fell on May 31 this year.
(Photos by Xinhua News Agency)
