When I was at the 6th Annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration in San Francisco on May 15, I learned that Dragon Boat races take place in San Francisco Bay. I stopped at the Dragon Boat booth and was told there would be more than a hundred boats competing in the 15th Dragon Boat Festival from Treasure Island in San Francisco on September 25-16, 2010.
In China, The Dragon Boat Festival is held on the fifth day of the fifth moon. History/myth tells us that the festival celebrates and honors Ch’u Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River during the fourth century BC during the Chou Dynasty to protest government corruption. There is some controversy over the real reason but this one is the most popular.
It is said that people rushed onto the river in boats to find Ch’u Yuan’s body but failed. Today, the festival is a day where boat races are held throughout the Chinese-speaking world wherever significant numbers of Chinese live.
Read more about Chinese dragons
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.
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