In China, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the three major traditional festive occasions, along with the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Among Chinese-speakers, it is better known as Duanwu Festival or Double Fifth Festival, since it falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese traditional lunar calendar. Now let's take a look at the some of its various customs and activities.  

Dragon boat racing is the most eye-catching event of the Duanwu Festival. The watersport involves teams of rowers competing in special vessels that feature dragon decorations at the bow and stern. An ancient folk ritual among contending villagers, the races have been held in the waterways of southern China for over 2000 years, originating in the same era as the Olympic Games in ancient Greece.

The time-honored custom first arose as a way to commemorate Qu Yuan, a minister of the Chu State, a kingdom in present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces before the first Chinese Empire was founded. Distinguished for his integrity and honor, Qu Yuan ended up banished from a royal court not known for its virtuousness. As his homeland succumbed to foreign invasion, he drowned himself to protest against the corruption.

Like dragon boat racing, the festival's most notable food zongzi, is also meant as a tribute to Qu Yuan. Legend has it that shortly after Qu Yuan's death, people began to scatter sticky rice into the river, so that fish would leave his body alone. Today, zongzi is a favorite food in early summer throughout China. The dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves are made of sticky rice mixed with sweet jujubes or savory pork.

Mostly occurring before the exuberant midsummer, the festival is celebrated with fragrant herbs such as mugwort. And its special beverage is Xiong Huang wine, an alcoholic drink made from cereal wine laced with a pungent mineral powder. Often rubbed on the forehead of young children, it is believed to repel harmful insects and snakes.

A public holiday in China, the Dragon Boat Festival is also unofficially observed by Chinese communities in Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia. Recent years have seen its festivities spread evern further, with dragon boat races even held halfway across the globe in the United States.