The Living Root club team races in the 45th annual Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival on Sunday. (WILL WANG/FOR CHINA DAILY) On the Charles River over the weekend, thousands of people enthusiastically participated in dragon boat races, with a cultural fair on land celebrating the traditional Chinese festival. Known as the first and oldest event in the United States celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival, the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival was held on Sunday and featured 68 teams with about 2,000 participants from New York and the New England states.
"We want to promote dragon boat racing. We want to use this platform to promote Asian culture ..
. people come here to learn, for exchange or just for fun, too," Gail Wang, president of the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival's board, told China Daily. Wang said dozens of volunteers for the 45th annual festival have been working diligently over the past year to preserve the tradition, while also offering a fresh perspective to attendees.
"It's very important for (connections) of people ...
culture exchanges, and that's what we do," she said. The festival, also called Duanwu, is a traditional Chinese festival observed on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It commemorates the life and death of Qu Yuan, a poet and politician during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
Upon hearing that his state, Chu, had fallen, he committed suicide by drowning in the Miluo River. Legend says that the people of Chu rushed to the riv.
