Last weekend in Flushing Meadows-Corona park was the annual Dragon Boast Festival. It's called a "festival" but it's actually more of a race -- various teams compete against each other in long sporty paddle-boats in Meadow Lake got up to look like Chinese dragons. An all-day event, the teams engage in various "heats" where the team with the best racing time wins.
There are Dragon Boat races all over the country and all over the world. The Dragon Boat races are a tradition that comes out of Ancient China, specifically from the Hong Kong region -- around 300 BC an official who was advocating reform yet being ignored by the king jumped into a river to commit suicide. The Chinese people took to their dragon boats and sped along the lake to find and rescue him. To prevent his body being eaten by the fish, they threw rice into the lake -- and rice cakes, a great Chinese delicacy was born, and they are consumed at each Dragon Boat Festival.
I don't know if they ever rescued the man but, more than two millenia later and on the other side of the world, his attempted rescue has become a traddition is still being honored.
If you want more information about it, go here. And here are my photos of the 2021 NYC Dragon Boast Festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep it civil, intelligent, and expletive-free. Otherwise, opine away.