The 23rd annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival kicked off on August 10 at Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Park in New York.
The two-day event featured dragon boat racing between 180 teams from across the northeast and Canada with about 2,400 participants.
After training for months, the participants came ready for the race. With the spectacle of colorful vessels, the competition is not only stiff, but also a dazzling display for people watching from land.
Dragon boat racing is a tradition that dates back to 277 BC, when patriotic Chinese poet Qu Yuan committed suicide by tying a rock to himself and jumping in a river on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The Chinese boat race is to try and get to him in time to save him and people throw bamboo leaves filled with rice into the water to keep the fish from eating his body. The beating drums and splashing paddles are also meant to keep the fish away.
The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York is an annual sporting and multicultural event held in August on Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York to celebrate the fifth month of the lunar calendar.
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