The Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Festival, Double Fifth Day) is a traditional Chinese festival on May 5th of the Chinese calendar. In the West, it is typically celebrated during the summer months with dragon boat races and competitions being the focus of the activities.

The Duan Wu originated in ancient China. One traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the high official Qu Yuan (屈原, Qūyuán, 340 BC-278 BC) of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period. Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he found out that Chu had lost a vital battle. The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce looking carved dragon head on the boat's.

Today, people eat bamboo-wrapped steamed rice dumplings called zongzi (the food originally intended to feed the fish) and race dragon boats in memory of Qu Yuan's death.