Dragon Boat Festival

Date : the fifth day of the fifth lunar month
About the origin of Dragon Boat Festival there are a lot of versions, the most influential one of which is that it is a festival that commemorates Qu Yuan. This version has almost been taken as a common sense among the Chinese people.
Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BC) was a dafu (senior state official in feudal China) in the state of Chu in the Warring States Period. Among the seven states then (Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin), Qin was the most powerful one and it intended to conquer the other six and dominate the world. Qu's capability won the recognition of Chu Huaiwang (Huai King of Chu). However, Qu's opinion that Chu should carry out a political reform and cooperate with the other states to fight against Qin met opposition from his fellow officials. They spoke ill of Qu before Huaiwang, and as a result, Huaiwang gradually became estranged from Qu, and finally he drove Qu out of the capital of Chu. Finally, Chu was defeated by Qin. Grieved and indignant, Qu Yuan jumped into Miluo River and ended his life. That day was just the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 278 BC.
When people got the news that Qu Yuan had drowned himself, they all got very sad and rowed to get his dead body but failed. To save the body from the fish, people threw food into the river to distract their attention. From then on, people always row dragon boats on rivers to mourn over Qu Yuan on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year. Moreover, they hl the bamboo cans with rice and throw them into rivers as a memorial ceremony. It was said that once someone met Qu Yuan by the river and Qu said, "The food you gave me has been robbed by the dragon. You'd better wrap the rice with bamboo or reed leaves and fasten it with colored threads, for these things are what dragons are most afraid of."
Since then, people began to commemorate Qu Yuan with zongzi which are made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, and thus zongzi become the traditional food of Dragon Boat Festival. In this way, the tradition of eating zongzi and rowing dragon boats was handed down to the later generations..