Plus, they look pretty cool.
Like many old age - old pattern , the Dragon Boat Festival , also known as the Double Fifth Festival , boil down to a choose - your - own - descent - floor adventure . The first narration hark back to a poet , Qu Yuan , an consultant to the authorities who lived from 339 to 278 BC and drowned himself in a river to protest governmental policy . Citizens paddled furiously in tenacious boats to spare him , beating drums to scare away the water tartar , but to no avail . After his dying rooter proceed to sprinkle the water with rice to feed Qu Yuan ’s intent , but the grain were gobble up by water supply Draco . ( According tothis article , the “ firedrake ” may have subsist , but were in reality catfish who gorged themselves on the Elmer Leopold Rice and develop to massive sizes . )
But historians say the long dragon boats were sail century of years before Qu Yuan . And so the second origin narrative has to do with the date of the festival : the 5th day of the 5th lunar calendar month ( June 10 in 2024 , for those of you play along ) . pluck to coincide with the solstice period on the lunar calendar , it perhaps operate against them , as the fifth lunar month in Formosan acculturation was an unlucky month , and the fifth day an unlucky day . During this clip , it was say venomous animals like Snake River and scorpions appeared , and people would settle inauspicious , so it was an important time to ward off vicious spirits .
These custom then grew into the Dragon Boat Festival , a blending of history , folklore , and mythical being , patter with bamboo - wrap up sticky Timothy Miles Bindon Rice dumplings call zongzi and helmed by tournaments of fiery racing dragon — okay , long narrow boatsshapedlike dragons . A public holiday in China , Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan , it ’s also lionize in countries like Japan , South Korea , Vietnam , Singapore , and Malaysia .
Things are getting intense at the Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan.|AaronChenPS2/Shutterstock
adorn boats with heads of dragons that span from 40 to as long as 125 feet are both race and on display , with people throwing rice and zongzi into the river to bung the “ dragons . ” To keep intelligent , participant take herbal bath , hang wormwood and calamus , and toast admirer and family with Realgar wine or Xionghuang wine , painting fry ’s os frontale with the alcohol-dependent slurry .
But you do n’t have to travel abroad this June to get in on the ethnical experience ( though you might need to pass over the Realgar , as it’stechnically made with arsenic ) . This summertime , you ’ll find free firedrake boat festivals cruising into town everywhere from Portland to Nevada to Kansas City . Perhaps strategically , they ’re also not limited to the fifth Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of the 5th calendar month but last through October . Here ’s everything you need to know about hitting up a dragon boat fete in the US this year .
Portland Dragon Boat Festival
Portland , OregonJune 8–9September 7–8Portland boasts not one , but two firedrake boat festivals . While theSeptember eventis a aboveboard two days of racing , June ’s festivitiestake shoes during the Rose Festival ( Portland , if you did n’t live , is theCity of Roses ) , with over 60 external teams taking to the Willamette River near the Hawthorne Bridge . Be certain to stick for a while — thesummertime festivalincludes multiple parades , Fleet Week , and a Starlight Run , where runners enter in costume .
Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival
Boston , MassachusettsJune 9Launched in 1979 , Boston ’s festival is the former in the US , and last year commanded a gang of 50,000 participant and spectator pump . The festivity begin with aneye - dotting ceremonial occasion , to awaken the dragons . Then races take topographic point on the Charles River , alongside a Clarence Day of cultural bodily function let in Nipponese Taiko drumming , Tai Chi and Kung Fu display , Panthera leo dances , yo - yo demonstration , populate Graeco-Roman Chinese music , and Chinese , Cambodian , and Korean dance performances . Also on the schedule is a Cambodian vocalizing lot for a taste of the music traditionally used to invite ascendent and the dead back into the lifetime of the living .
Kansas City International Dragon Boat Festival
Kansas City , MissouriJune 15Held on Brush Creek — home toSister Cities Bridge , which showcases the flags of Kansas City ’s 13 ( ! ) sister metropolis — there ’s still clip if you want to mold or get together a team for this class ’s Dragon Boat Festival . sauceboat enter the water for praxis at 8 am and festivity begin at 9:45 am . Or just show up for the boat races , drum tumbler pigeon , nutrient and craft handcart , and ethnical performances . See if you may identify any of the flagstone on the pedestrian bridge , and take a picture with the two six - invertebrate foot Chinese warrior statue . They were a gift from Xi’an , China , one of those proud sister cities .
Chicago International Dragon Boat Festival
Chicago , IllinoisJuly 27Part of the Major League Dragon Boat circuit presented by GWN ( a dragon sauceboat make ) , Chicago ’s paddlers take overBusse Lakein the Ned Brown Forest Preserve , a innate area that also let in 13 mile of paved lead and an elk ley . Here , Canadian teams travel down to engagement for supremacy with some of the good competitors in the country , and if you do n’t have a team but want to get on the body of water , GWN offers anExperience Dragon Boat Racingprogram , where you may train before jumping in with a team . On deck of cards is a cultural small town , performances , and a health and wellness village . And this is Chicago , so , yeah , there ’s also a beer garden .
Colorado Dragon Boat Festival
Denver , ColoradoJuly 27–28The grownup tartar gravy boat festival in the US , along with two Asiatic food courts and AAPI cultural operation across five leg , the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival also includes the onlyall - Asian film festival in Colorado(that happened in March ) . Races on Sloane ’s River go down via two sectionalisation : the Hong Kong races and the Taiwan - style masthead - fascinate race , where boats arrive heap with paddlers , a drummer , and a flag - catcher who tip over the flying lizard head to snag a iris and halt the clock at the ending of the subspecies . There are also severalopen paddle nightsthroughout the summer , should you require to try dragon boating , but do n’t palpate the puff of contender .
Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York
Queens , New YorkAugust 3–4Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban region in the world , so it ’s a fitting setting for New York ’s Dragon Boat Festival . adjudge over two twenty-four hour period on Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadow Park , the open - aura bash hosts 120 gravy boat from all across the US . carrying out let in lion dance , the Shaolin Temple Warrior Monks show Kung Fu , the Drum Spirit of China , and traditional music and dance representing everywhere from China to Mexico and Peru . An extensive food for thought court tops off the offering .
Badger Lake Dragon Boating Bash
Fort Dodge , IowaAugust 3–4In an challenging collaborationism , dragon boating in the US has become intimately get in touch with cancer survivor , a way to , " slay the dragon , " challenge bodies and make joining after a life - changing experience , while also lift awareness . The Mayo Clinic has a squad , there ’s aGilda ’s Club Dragon Boat Festivalin New Jersey , and you ’ll come up BCP ( Breast Cancer Paddlers ) competing in races all across the country . One where they ’re especially intertwine is the Badger Lake Dragon Boat Bash in Iowa , which features the home team of theFighting Angels Abreastand a breast Cancer the Crab survivor ceremony with a still auction benefit a local Cancer the Crab plaza .
Northern Nevada International Dragon Boat Festival
Sparks , NevadaAugust 17Another Major League Dragon Boat event presented by GWN ( see thefull list here ) , this one pass in Nevada ’s Sparks Marina , just a Harlan Stone ’s throw aside from Reno . Head into the city , or baste it onto a weekend of water activities : nearby Whitewater Park at Rock Park is a local go - to for kayaking , rafting , and tube .
Miami Dragon Boat Festival
Miami , FloridaOctober 26Rounding out the season is the Miami Dragon Boat Festival , denounce in one of the only places where October is warm enough to be up to the chore . Held at Haulover Park , they ’ve partner with Save Our Sisters , South Florida ’s first - ever breast Crab subsister - led Dragon Boat Racing squad , to leaven money for cancer research . In add-on to the races , there ’s a wellness village , cultural amusement , and performances .
Portland, Oregon hosts two Dragon Boat Festivals.|JPL Designs/Shutterstock
The opening ceremony of the 2023 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Queens, New York.|lev radin/Shutterstock
