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This festival commemorates the death of Chu-Yuan, an accomplished poet and upright minister who plunged to his death in a river about 2,500 years ago to protest the corruption and misrule of his king, who had banished him from the court. According to legend, upon hearing his death, the local people rowed their boats out on the river and dropped stuffed rice dumplings tightly wrapped in bamboo leaves into the water to supplicate and nourish his spirit or to distract animals from eating him. These dumpling called "dzung-dze" , remain this festival major food item. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated with colourful dragon-boat races, which in recent years have become a major sporting event in Taipei.