The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is a traditional Chinese folk festival - Dragon Boat Festival, also known as "Festival of the Fifth Month". On that day, people eat zongzhi - pyramid-shaped dumling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, and hold dragon-boat races. It is said, these activities commenorate the great patriotic poet Qu Yuan in ancient China.

Qu Yuan lived in the State of Chu in the Warring States Period (475 BC -221 BC). Among the states of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin, the State of Qin was the strongest, and it wished to annex the others to become even more powerful. Qu Yuan was a Dafu. He maintained that Chu's politics should be reformed and that it should unite with the other states to resist Qin. But his stand was opposed by crafty sycophants, who used malicious accusations to persuade the king of Chu not to adopt the idea and to drive Qu Yuan from the capital. Despite when he heard the news that Qin had defeated the State of Chu, he was full of grief and felt that he had no power to save his motherland, so he drowned himself in Miluo River. It was the fifth day of fifth lunar month in 278 BC.

When people heard the news, they rowed their boats to try to find his corpse, but failed. In order to keep fish and shrimps from eating his corpse, people threw food into river to feed them, Therefore, on each fifth day of the fifth lunar month, people would throw food into river. Later, people used reed leaves to wrap zongzhi for this purpose. Thus the custom of eating zongzhi and staging dragon boat race was formed.

Up to present, dragon boat race is not only limited to Dragon Boat Festival, but has also spread to many places around the world, and even became an important match. In the rural areas of China, dragon boat race has taken root as a physical activity. People say "We would waste one year's farming rather than lose one year's dragon boat race".