The Dragon Boat Festival, locally known as the Duanwu Festival, is a legal and traditional festival which has its roots originating in ancient China. This festival is popular among the surrounding East Asian and South Asian countries. Although an equivalent version of the same celebration has been celebrated for years in countries like Malaysia, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam under different names, mainland China recognized the Dragon Boat Festival for the first time in 2008.
The yearly Dragon Boat Festival is dedicated to the poet of the era of Warring States, Qu Yuan's suicide. The great poet was accused of treason and banished from China for opposing the ally. 28 years after this event, Ying, the capital of Chu, was taken over by Qin. In disgust, the poet committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. The fishermen around tried to save the poet from the fish in the river by rushing into the water with their boats, beating their drums loudly and throwing objects and food at the hungry fish. This led to the birth of Dragon Boat Festival.
The three most common activities of the Dragon Boat Festival include eating and preparing "zongzi" and having boat races. Zongzi is a Chinese dish made with glutinous rice, also known as sticky rice dumplings, for the Dragon Boat Festival. The glutinous rice encloses a filling that can be either sweet or savory, wrapped with bamboo leaves and boiled before consumption, drinking wine.
