Wu Zixu
Some Chinese believe that the Dragon Boat Festival (the Double-Fifth festival celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month) usually associated with the suicide of the poet Qu Yuan (d. 278 BC) originally commemorated the death of Wu Zixu (484 BC), whose body was thrown into a river after his forced suicide. However, there are caveats. First of all, the practice of venerating Wu Zixu as a water deity can only be traced to the time of the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD). Furthermore, the Wu Zixu water god cult in the Han Era has not directly connected with dragon boat racing (that is to say, the quoted evidence on the Wu Zixu cult fails to mention dragon boat race or even river race), although "close parallels with the boat competition" have been noted by a 6th-century commentary on the festival calendar, according to one scholar. It is documented that sailing boats did carry ritual dancers to appease Zixu's spirit.