23 June 2012 ~ Tuen Ng Festival
Listening to: Talking Heads ~ What A Day It Was (8/3/1983)
Today is Tuen Ng Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, held on the 5th day of the 5th moon. This ancient event commemorates the death of a popular Chinese national hero, Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River over 2,000 years ago to protest against the corrupt rulers. Legend has it that as townspeople attempted to rescue Qu Yuan, they beat drums to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep the fish from eating his body.
Today, festival activities recall this legendary event. People eat rice-and-meat dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves, swimming or even simply dipping their hands in the water, and of course Dragon Boat races.
It was held at Stanley Beach, on the south side of Hong Kong Island.
My co-workers from Accenture had a boat in the race so I went to provide my support and check out the scene. I work with the woman in the blue and the pink hat, and the 2 guys in the front row.
The boats are have a dragon head and tail.
And there is a head row master that beats the drum.
Some teams really get into the spirit of it with lively costumes.
There was even a team "Neumann".
Speed-o's on the other hand...definitely not a good look.
Another beach view.
I'm including a video of one of the races (there were 65 races throughout the day) so you have an idea.
And here they are coming into the finish line.
posted by ~L~ @ 5:24 AM
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