New Yorkers celebrate Dragon Boat Festival with fervor & color

"Dragons" ready to be unleashed

Jasmine's event also featured a recitation of an extract of Qu's famous poem Li Sao, or The Sorrow of Parting, by a guest from the New York Hanfu Corporation in traditional Chinese costume.

With 373 lines and more than 2,400 characters, "Li Sao" is also one of the longest poems of ancient China. In making use of a wide range of metaphors derived from local culture, the poem expresses Qu's unrequited love for his country Chu, and his sadness over its inevitable decline.

The great poet might never have imagined that his death would inspire a much-loved sport, not only in China, but also all across the world including the US cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Kansas City and Boston.

Interestingly, dragon boat racing has grown beyond the Dragon Boat Festival's official holiday celebration on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month every year in America over the past decade while the old-fashioned dragon-headed boat and drum as well, are still kept for carrying the Chinese tradition, and the rules set by the International Dragon Boat Federation are abided.

The 28th annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York is scheduled for August 11-12, and over 200 well-trained teams will paddle across the Meadow Lake, at the Corona Park of the city's borough of Queens during this year's race, Henry Wan, chairman of New York's Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival host committee, told Xinhua, on Saturday.

"Throughout the years that we've been having this festival going on, it's continuously growing. We've got more and more viewers every year, and teams grow more and more, too," said Marvin, a volunteer for the festival."It's definitely making an impact on this community right here."

"I'm captain and drummer, we have a new steerer this year and we are moving into using the fiber glass boats instead of the timbre boats for the race," Julia Chesler told Xinhua after about three hours practice with her team on the Meadow lake.