The Duanwu Festival, also called the Dragon Boat Festival,
is to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan.
Qu Yuan was a loyal and highly esteemed/respected minister,
who brought peace and prosperity to the state
but ended up drowning himself in a river as a result of being vilified.
People got to the spot by boat and cast glutinous dumplings into the water,
hoping that the fishes ate the dumplings instead of Qu Yuan’s body. For thousands of years,
the festival has been marked by glutinous dumplings and dragon boat races,
especially in the southern provinces where there are many rivers and lakes.