Dragon
Boat RacingDragon
Boat Racing
Imagine the scene — six teams, with twenty-two people, working in unison on the water to be the first to cross the finish line. Imagine the anticipation and increased heartbeats, all moving to the beat of a drum. Imagine the silence at the start, the hush in the audience, and then the screams of support cheering for the team that is the first to cross the finish line.
Dragon boat paddling is a colorful, 2,000-year-old, Chinese sport that is stroking its way to newfound popularity. Hundreds-of-thousands of people turn out each year for dragon boat races mirroring the recent growth in outrigger canoe paddling. Dragon boat racing is a global phenomenon and is an annual event held in over forty countries around the world. Races are held in China, Australia, Africa, Canada, England, as well as the U. S. in the states of Washington, Hawaii, New York, Iowa and California. A quarter-of-a-million people turn out annually for the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival. This year's race will be held on Toronto Centre Island June 22-24, 2001.
In many cities, sufferers and survivors of breast cancer and other cancers have formed dragon boat teams because of the activity's physical and mental benefits. Paddling helps rebuild areas of the chest and arm affected by cancer and surgery.
Twenty of the twenty-two team members on a dragon boat are paddlers. Another is a drummer, who pounds out a cadence on a traditional drum placed in the bow of the boat and verbally counts out various paddling patterns. Helping on that count, shouting out encouragement and guiding from the stern is the steersman. The stroke used in dragon boat paddling is unlike a canoe stroke with a longer reach ahead and a shorter draw. It is a quick stroke, 70 to 80 per minute by a seasoned team, with power provided by the shoulders, not the arms. The goal is to lift the boat high above the water with a cresting wave beneath the bow. Teams race along a straight course that can vary from 250 - 1,000 meters, with an average time ranging from three to six minutes.
As the legend goes, dragon boat racing began some time after 400 B.C. when a statesmen and poet named Qu Yuan drowned himself in southern China's Mi Lo River to protest the tyrannical regime of the Chu Dynasty. Fishermen on shore raced out to save him but failed. To prevent fish and water dragons from eating his body, the legend goes that they beat the water with their paddles, pounded drums, and threw rice cakes wrapped in bamboo into the water. Celebrated in China on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the Chinese lunar calendar, dragon boat racing now commemorates Qu Yuan's sacrifice by re-enacting the rescue effort.
Part of the beauty of dragon boat racing is in the boats themselves. Once made of hollowed logs and now of fiber-resin, the curiously concave hulls are from a design developed by Chinese fishermen thousands of years ago. As one of the most venerated of Chinese zodiac figures, dragons symbolize control over the water. During regattas the 57-foot boats are fitted with colorful, fierce-looking heads and tails.
Over time, a ritual associated with the celebration is the awakening of the dragon. A Taoist Priest prepares the boat by dotting the protruding eyes of the dragon's head in order to end his slumber. This ceremony, which dates back thousands of years, is performed at the opening of many races.
The performance of these rituals and staging of the dragon boat races demonstrates a community dedication to its gods. In return, members of the community will be protected from unfriendly spirits of the sea and blessed with happiness and prosperity.
Countries around the world have embraced this water sport and have formed dragon boat racing clubs in their own countries. As dragon boat racing quickens its pace to become one of the hottest water sports, it is also gaining momentum to being recognized as an Olympic sport. In Canada, the two largest dragon boat festival organizers will be supporting a bid to have dragon boat racing as a demonstration sport in the 2008 Olympics.
For more information on dragon boat racing, check out the following websites:
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