Dragon Boat Festival / Chang Festival   (according to lunar calendar - June/July)

This festival marks the death of a Chinese poet and scholar Qu Yuan who drowned in 296 BC in Hunan province in China .

The scholar Qu Yuan was believed drowned in a river near his village. When people heard of his disappearance, they scoured the river in boats to rescue him, beating their drums to scare off the fishes from nibbling at his body. Unable to find his body, they made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river in the hope that the fishes would eat these dumplings instead of his remains. This day falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. To commemorate the occasion, boats were decorated with dragon heads on their bows. 

    The tradition of making dumplings (called 'chang')is celebrated by the Chinese community in Malaysia and Singapore with the offering of the dumplings to the gods. The festival is celebrated in Penang annually with an international dragon boat competition which is immensely popular and attracts participants from all over the world.