Boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival commemorate the attempt to rescue the patriotic poet Chu Yuan, who drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Unable to save him, the people threw bamboo stuffed with cooked rice into the water so that the fish would eat the rice rather than the body of their hero. This evolved into the present custom of eating tzungtzu, rice dumplings filled with ham or bean paste and wrapped in bamboo leaves.

Since antiquity the Chinese have believed that the fifth lunar month is a pestilential, danger-fraught period. Sanitation is emphasized, medicines are added to food, aromatic branches are hung above doors, and beautifully embroidered protective amulets or sachets containing spices or medicines are fastened to the clothing of children.

Large crowds attend the festive boat races in Taipei, Lukang, Taiwan, and Kaohsiung. Teams from all over the world compete in the races as excited observers cheer form the river banks.

乙卯重五诗 陆游 重五山村好，榴花忽已繁。 粽包分两髻，艾束著危冠。 旧俗方储药，羸躯亦点丹。 日斜吾事毕，一笑向杯盘。 竞渡曲 刘禹锡 沅江五月平堤流，邑人相将浮彩舟。 灵均何年歌已矣，哀谣振楫从此起。 扬桴击节雷阗阗，乱流齐进声轰然。 蛟龙得雨耆鬣动，螮蝀饮河形影联。 刺史临流褰翠帏，揭竿命爵分雄雌。 先鸣余勇争鼓舞，未至衔枚颜色沮。 百胜本自有前期，一飞由来无定所。 风俗如狂重此时，纵观云委江之湄。 彩旗夹岸照蛟室，罗袜凌波呈水嬉， 曲终人散空愁暮，招屈亭前水车注。