Dragon boat players train for a contest in Zigui County, Qu Yuan's hometown in central China's Hubei Province, June 5, 2011. Local people made "zongzi", hung artemisiae argyi and raced dragon boat to celebrate the traditional Chinese dragon boat festival. The festival, which falls on Monday, arises from the legend of Qu Yuan, a romantic poet and minister to the king of Chu who drowned himself after he was forced into exile. [Xinhua/Zheng Jiayu]

Palatable rice dumplings, fragrant herbal sachet, and ancient rituals for health, people across China celebrated Duanwu, or the Dragon Boat Festival, Monday to usher in the sizzling summer days with ancient blessings.

The Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day on the fifth month on the lunar calendar, is believed to be designed to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan, a patriot poet during the Warring State Period (475-221 BC). Qu committed suicide by flinging himself into the Miluo River after the capital of Chu, his mother country, fell under the enemy attack.

Over the years, the festival has evolved from a purely mournful experience to a national holiday that features sacrifices to ancestors, family get-togethers, and rituals to guard away diseases and bad luck.

RECALL ANCIENT CUSTOMS IN HOMETOWN OF QU YUAN

Legend has it that after the drowning of Qu Yuan, local people along the Miluo River raced boats and threw packets of rice to distract fish from eating Qu's body.

In Zigui County, the allegedly final resting place of Qu in central China's Hubei Province, people still carried on the millennium-old practices and have made the festivities into a spectacle of the year.

On Monday morning, thousands of local residents, all dressed in white mourning clothes, gathered along a river and chanted ancient songs to summon the spirit of Qu.

Parades of lavishly adorned dragon boats then cruised along the river, resembling the scene when Qu's sister and local residents searched the water for his body.

A dragon boat race then followed. In many other places in southern China, it has developed into an exciting tournament that attracted tens of thousands audience every year.