Dragon Boat Festival
This year Wednesday 16th June was celebrated in China as Dragon Boat Festival Day. It is an ancient festival held in accordance with the lunar calendar. It celebrates the life and death of a statesman and poet, Qu Yuan. Over 2,000 years ago he was so dispirited by his Emperor’s foreign policy that he committed suicide by jumping into a river. The local people respected him so much that they paddled their boats into the river looking for him. Others threw rice into the water so the fish would not eat his body.
There are other stories and cultural traditional associated with Dragon Boat Festival and more information can be found here
http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/dragonboat/dragon.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival
These days dragon boat races are held in southern China where rivers and water are common. The rest of China enjoys the making and/or eating of zhongzi. It is also spelt as zongzi. They consist of rice and other tidbits wrapped in leaves and steamed. We have a day off work yet I discovered yesterday that middle school students must go to school.
I bought a couple of zhongzi from a woman in the street near the college on Monday. When I photographed them I discovered that one had a tiny hitchhiker. It is just under the tie in the middle of the one on the left. 
I have yet to decide the fate of those zhongzi.
I have since acquired a few more from students and staff.
This is a link to more information about the festival and a recipe for making zongzi
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/foodfestivals/a/zongzidumpling.htm
These are a few of the others I acquired and 3 different styles of wrapping are evident. The one at the front contains meat. I haven’t tried them yet.
This is the first decent photo of an unwrapped zhongzi.
