The Dragon Boat festivals were always a popular event in the Henderson family calendar when we lived in Hong Kong, especially the races held off Stanley Village. Eventually an expatriate team was raised, but although they had more brawn than the local Chinese, skill and experience normally prevailed.

This was forty years ago. Now the Dragon Boat Races are to be found all over the world. Not least in the USA. There is even an official governing body the International Dragon Boat Federation and various other regional federations including the United States Dragon Boat Federation where you can find out much more.

This is a recent video of races at Stanley which indicates the expansion of these races into a world wide phenomenon really took off in 1976 when we lived in Hong Kong

The Dragon Boat Festival is called 端午节 (duān wǔ jié) in Chinese and falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar.

There are many theories, myths and legends of the origin of the holiday but a popular one is that the poet Qu Yuan, who was in exile, wrote a poem, called Li Sao, which talked of the love and passion he had for his country. When a  rival state, the State of Qin, captured his capital, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month in 278BC.

The people paddled out in their boats to look for his body in the river and frighten the fish by beating the water with paddles and throwing rice wrapped in bamboo leaves to feed the fish so they would eat the rice instead of Qu Yuan’s body.

Later, the people kept throwing in rice on the fifth day of the fifth month as a way of paying their respects. So the Dragon Boat Festival, sometimes called Poet’s Day began

The Chinese believed that dragons ruled over the rivers and lakes. Hence the shape of the boats. Normally it is a sprint of 500 meters, but there are now some long distance races. However this is away from the tradition and origins.

The boat probably has 22 people, 20 paddlers, one drummer and one to steer, but traditionally, there could be an upwards of 50 or more people in a boat.

The procedure of ‘dotting the eyes’ before a race is to bring the dragon out of his slumber and into life.