Tuen Ng Festival(端午節)

Today is the fifth day of the fifth month based on the Chinese lunar calendar. On this days and also many days preceding it, the Chinese people eat Zong or Chinese glutinuous rice dumpling. It is also known as the Dragon Boat Festival or in Cantonese Tuen Ng Festival (端午節). In 2008, this festival falls on June 8. It is also known as the Double Fifth. The Tuen Ng Festival originated in ancient China. It commemorates the death of a popular Chinese hero, Chu Yuan 屈原or also known as Wut Chun (c. 340 BC-278 BC) of the the Kingdom of Chu 楚国during the Warring States period 战国时代who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Mi Lo River 汨罗江on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in 278 BCE which is over 2,000 years ago to protest against the corrupt rulers. Legend has it that as townspeople attempted to rescue him, they beat drums to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep the fish from eating Chu Yuan's body. The people also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats, and at the same time tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and carved dragon head on the boat's prow.
Tradition has it that his death occurred on the fifth day of the fifth moon . Ever since, each year on this day, people eat bamboo-wrapped steamed rice dumplings called zongzi 粽子(the food originally intended to feed the fish) and race dragon boats in memory of Chu Yuan's death.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Boat_Festival
http://www.goodlucklife.com/excerpt.html
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/dec97/holiday/boatz.html
http://www.chinatownology.com/dragon_boat_festival.htm
http://www.chinatownology.com/zong_zi.htm
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kyfoo/chinese/DragonboatFestival.html

http://www.geneseo.edu/~mw6/dragon.htm
http://www.chinapage.com/quyuan5.html