What date is the Dragon Boat Festival? The answer is the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year.

The Dragon Boat Festival is an important traditional Chinese festival, fixed on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year, so many people ask what date the Dragon Boat Festival falls on. Because the lunar and Gregorian calendars differ, the Gregorian date of the Dragon Boat Festival changes every year, generally falling between late May and mid-to-late June. To know the exact date in a given year, checking that year's calendar or a perpetual calendar is the most direct way.

The Dragon Boat Festival is also known as the Duan Yang Festival, Chong Wu Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Fifth Month Festival, and is known along with the Spring Festival, Qingming, and Mid-Autumn Festival as one of China's four major traditional festivals. As for its origin, the most widely circulated account is that it commemorates the patriotic poet Qu Yuan of the Warring States period; there are also different explanations such as dragon totem worship and adapting to the summer season. Together these accounts reflect the ancients' observation of the changing seasons and their remembrance of past sages.

The customs during the festival are very rich. Eating zongzi and racing dragon boats are the two most representative activities, and zongzi flavors vary from place to place, with sweet zongzi more common in the north and savory zongzi more common in the south. People also hang mugwort and acorus calamus at their doors, wear sachets for children, and tie five-color strings; some places retain the tradition of drinking realgar wine, expressing the wish to ward off evil and harm and to pray for peace and health.

Today the Dragon Boat Festival has been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list, has also been inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and has become a national statutory holiday. As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches each year, places often hold dragon boat races, zongzi-wrapping events, and other activities, allowing this ancient festival to continue its vitality in modern life.