Happy Duan Wu!

[Editor’s note: This entry was originally posted on the old DieselFish blog on June 16, 2010]

--- Joyce L wrote:

Today is Duan Wu (aka Dragon Boat) Festival on the Chinese calendar. My Mum wrote to remind me. Things to do include eating some rice in lotus leaf and paddling hard!

I urge everyone to study up on the history of dragon boating here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival?wasRedirected=true

...and be able to tell a little story during the next new paddler day!

(and do better than my "well there was once this poet with depression"...)

Sent on a bus from Joyce's iPhone

Re: Duan Wu Festival!

Wed Jun 16, 2010

Hi Fishies:

Reading Joyce's email reminded me of something that a newbie told me after one of our New Paddler Day events. He said that one of the things that he likes about dragon boat paddling is that it is a cultural as well as athletic activity.

The race in Portland that we just returned from is a prime example of this duality. The race celebrates Portland's sister city relationship with Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and is part of a program designed to promote the exchange of educational, artistic, and cultural activities. We see a little bit of this on our own home turf as well when we dress our CDBA boats with the heads, tails, and drums before races. These decorations make the boats a little heavier, but I enjoy seeing them because they bring a little tradition back to the sport.

I'm actually going to my parents’ house tonight for a special dinner. Celebrating Duan Wu is a new tradition for us. We're not especially festive, so in the past, we only paid attention to the Lunar New Year. Mom only started buying zong for the holiday after I joined the team. For those of you that haven’t had one before, zong are like Chinese tamales – big globs of meat-filled sticky rice that are steamed in lotus leaves. They are perfect for carbo loading the night before a race or practice session.

As Frank pointed out, DieselFish is one of the most diverse clubs in the Bay Area. I'd like to think that this experience has brought everyone in the boat a little closer to Chinese culture.

Happy Duan Wu, everybody!

-A.

It's like a Benetton ad!

  

Hello Internet friends!  Doesn’t dragon boat racing with DieselFish sound like fun? Go to http://dieselfish.org/ now to sign up for a free practice session!