Friday Facts, one day early.

My Friday Facts is done one day early. I'm back to posting them in the main blog but I'll still keep them over in the links on the left too...

Thought I'd mix things up a bit. Even though I still have several Friday Facts ideas in draft, it's time to start introducing other ideas:

Friday Festivals

Friday Places

This week we'll start with the Dragon Boat Festival even though the official Day is May 31st, many Festivals are taking place from THIS WEEKEND through July.

WHEN
Technically on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, also known as Double Fifth, it's the second of three Chinese festivals that are widely celebrated and designated for the living. (The others are Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival.)

WHERE IN NORTH AMERICA CAN YOU SEE IT
To be quite frank about this, while researching, it was hard to find a location with access to a sizable body of water in the US and Canada that didn't have races, or a festival or both. Tampa, Boston, Hartford, DC, San Francisco, Seattle, Tempe, San Diego, Vancouver, Niagara Falls, Montreal, NYC, Rhode Island, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Houston, Jersey, Detroit, etc. (I quit looking)

Click Here for San Francisco
Click Here for Boston , June 11th

Click Here for DC, JUNE 21-22, THIS WEEKEND!!!!!

Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver

GO HERE TO FIND A LISTING FOR WORLDWIDE FESTIVALS AND COMPETITIONS (40 official competitions in the US alone this year)

WHAT IS IT
Depends on how deep you research and who you believe. From what I've researched, it's a compilation of 2 things:

Qu Yuan, one of China’s most impassioned poets from over two thousand years ago

and

The Heavenly/Celestical Dragon -the most venerated role in the Chinese mythological tradition.

The boat races are traditional customs attempting to rescue the patriotic poet Qu Yuan who drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. Qu Yuan was said to have produced some of the greatest early Chinese poetry during his exile. It expressed his love for his state and concern for it's future. The collection of Odes are known as Chuchi. Qu Yuan committed suicide, so the story goes, as a form of protest over the corruption of the era.

Upon learning of his suicide people rushed out in their fishing boats and tried desperatedly to save Qu Yuan. They beat drums and splashed the water with their paddles in order to keep the fish and evil spirits from his body. Later on, they scattered rice into the water to prevent him from suffering hunger. Another belief is that the people scattered rice to feed the fish, in order to prevent the fishes from devouring the poet's body.

However, late one night, the spirit of Qu Yuan appeared before his friends and told them that the rice meant for him was being intercepted by a huge river dragon. He asked his friends to wrap their rice into three-cornered silk packages to ward off the dragon. This has been a traditional food ever since known as zongzi or sticky rice wrapped in leaves, although they are wrapped in leaves instead of silk. In commemoration of Qu Yuan it is said, people hold dragon boat races annually on the day of his death.

Why the dragon? Of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac the only mythical creature is the dragon. Dragons are believed to be the rulers of rivers and seas and dominate the clouds and the rains of heaven. There are earth dragons, mountain dragons and sky or celestial dragons (Tian Long) in Chinese tradition.

Today, dragon boat festivals continue to be celebrated around the world with dragon boat racing, although such events are still culturally associated with the traditional Chinese Tuen Ng Festival in Hong Kong (Cantonese Chinese dialect) or Duan Wu festival in south central mainland China (Mandarin Chinese dialect).

HOW POPULAR IS THIS?
Though the holiday has been celebrated 'forever', it was in the 1970's when Hong Kong staged an International Race to promote Hong Kong, that the start of the Modern Era of Dragon Boat Sport Racing took place.

Since then, 50 MILLION people in China, 300,000 in Europe, 90,000 in Canada/USA and thousands in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Caribbean have taken part in festivals, competitions, etc.

In the Annual International Dragon Boat FEstivals, in 2005, 18 countries and 4 continents were represented, a total of nearly 3000 individuals took part. For some perspective, just under 2,000 athletes competed in the 2006 winter olympics, gives you an idea how largely followed this sport is.

In 2007, the world Championships take place in Welland, Canada, while 2008 coincides with the Beijing Olympics.