Georgia Asian Times
21st Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival Atlanta / Sept 10, 2016
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Fun Facts on Dragon Boat Racing Dragon Boat Racing is over 2000 years old - making it one of world’s oldest sports. The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Because of this, it’s also known as Double Fifth. In China, the festival is called Duanwu. The literal translation of Duanwu is Solar Maximus festival. In the Chinese lunar calendar, Duanwu is the time when the sun is at its maximum strength. In China, the sun (yang) is considered male, as is the mythical Chinese dragon (long), so the festival honoring the dragon is held when the sun is at its peak. Although we refer to Duanwu in the West as Dragon Boat Festival, this name actually refers to only one part of the celebration, dragon boat racing. European visitors to China in the 19th century were so impressed with the dragon boat races that they saw during the festival that they took the name with them.
Whether it’s shipping cargo across the world or paddling a Dragon Boat across the finish line. Good luck to the MOL Katana Dragons!
It’s also considered the world’s fastest growing team water sports and one of fastest growing team sports, second only to soccer. Nearly 50 million people competed last year and there is a movement to make Dragon Boat Racing an Olympic sport. Modern dragon boat racing is organized at an international level by the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF). The biggest dragon boat festival racing events outside of Asia are in Europe, in Malmo, Sweden and in the USA and Canada. San Francisco, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal each host races featuring more than 180 teams with 25 person crews. Dragon Boat Racing teams in North America typically paddle at rates of 60 to 85 strokes per minute. In Asia, top teams can pull water at stroke rates above 100 stroke per minute! It is common for four or more teams in a race to finished close together and only split-second apart. A modern dragon boat is usually 10 to 12 meters (about 40 feet) long. The most popular dragon boat set-up consists of 10 rows of seats for 20 paddlers sitting side-by-side, a drummer (caller) in the front and a steersmand (sweep) in the back. The drummer controls the stroke pace and makes sure that all of the paddlers synchronize with each other while the steersman navigates the boat. Dragon Boat races are typically 500 meters, but occasionally there are 250 meters, 1000 meters, 2000 meters, and marathon races.
Dragon Boat Racing is enjoyed by people of all ages in over 50 countries or territories around the world. On October 30th, 2009, the Dragon Boat Festival was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. HK Dragon Boat Festival Atlanta has consistently field the maximum of 72 teams in the past 8 years. 21st HK Dragon Boat Festival is the largest ever festival in its history with 80 registered competing teams.