The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in China and is one of three major Chinese holidays. The festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan over 2000 years ago by having dragon boat races and eating zongzi rice dumplings. People raced out in boats trying to save Qu Yuan after he drowned himself in despair, and later threw zongzi, eggs, and poured wine into the river so fish would not eat his body.