Several of us from the United Planet team met in Harvard Square last Sunday to see the Boston Dragon Boat Festival. The descendant of an ancient Chinese celebration, the Boston festival features dance, martial arts, food from local restaurants, and of course the main event, the Dragon Boat races.

A Dragon Boat is about 20 feet long, and holds a team of around 15 rowers. Each person paddles on one side, directed by a coxswain beating the rhythm on a drum. As you can see in the pictures, the boats are brightly colored and fantastically decorated with carved dragons on the prow!

Twenty-seven teams competed against each other in time trials. A number of local institutions fielded teams, including State Street Bank, the Boston Children’s Museum, Harvard University, and more! The winners will head to New York for another qualifying race, and ultimately, the teams with the best times will race in Hong Kong! The overall best time on Sunday went to a club from Montreal.

Joni Starr, a former member of the UP team, raced on the team from the Children’s Museum, so we met up with her by the river before her team’s race. Afterwards, we went to Shay’s in the Square to escape the heat. It was fun to see the city transformed for a day. Cambridge was packed with people, from the banks of the Charles River to the heart of the Square. I encourage anyone living in Boston to attend the festival next year, or enjoy one of the local festivals in your city! For more information about the Boston Dragon Boat Festival, as well as the origin of this celebration, check out their website!

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• When Boston Becomes Chinese
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• Total immersion in China, Summer 2011

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm and is filed under local culture, Team Stories. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.