Zongzi is often eaten to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival. [File photo]

This year, the Dragon Boat Festival will fall on June 20.

Traditionally, the festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and is a time for zongzi, which is a steamed, leaf-wrapped delicacy made of sticky rice, vegetables, fruits and meat. Other than family meals, people also race dragon-shaped boats along rivers in homage to Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), a revered poet and government minister.

National Opera House of China will run two performances of Qu Yuan on June 20-21, under the baton of Yu Feng, president and artistic director of the opera house.

The six-scene opera tells the story of Qu, an eminent official of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), who advocated the rule of law to fight graft back then. Qu ended his life by drowning in the Miluo River.