(Left picture) Participants compete in a dragon boat race on the outskirts of Beijing to mark the annual Dragon Boat Festival Tuesday May 28, 2009. The festival commemorates the memory of Chinese patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself on the day in 277 B.C.
The traditional Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, falls on May 28 this year and creates the first three-day national holiday from May 28 to 30.
The origins of the festival which is believed to commemorate the loyalty and honesty of the suicide poet Qu Yuan around 2,200 years ago.
There are many traditional activities to observe during the Duanwu festival, for example, eating Zongzi, a rice ball wrapped in reeds or bamboo leaves; drinking realgar wine; hanging artemisia leaves and racing dragon boats. Each of these activities carries its own special cultural significance that has been handed down for thousands of years and has become a part of traditional Chinese culture.
