Dragon Boat Festival or Duanwu festival is a Chinese festival celebrated on the 5th day of 5th month in the Chinese lunar calender. It is also known as Dumpling festival as the main celebration includes the eating of rice flour Dumplings and dragon boat racing. China is the birth place of this festival but also celebrated in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia where there is a significant amount of Chinese population.

The annual Dragon Boat Festival in Singapore invites national and international teams to race along in decorated dragon boats. The dragon boat race crew consists of 22 athletic members paddling furiously to the rhythm of a drummer sitting at the head.

The story behind the festival goes like this. Before a millennium a much loved poet, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Mei Lo river unable to bear the corrupt government. Fisherman tried to rescue the d poet sailing up and down thrashing their oars in the water to ward off hungry fish. They failed to save him but in commemoration of his honest character they cooked rice dumplings wrapped in banana leaves. They threw them into the water to appease the spirits of the river on the anniversary of his death.

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