Dragon boat teams from Boston, Tampa Bay, Winnipeg and other places across the U.S. and Canada come to San Francisco in September to race and roil the waters off of Treasure Island. The San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival is one of the largest dragon boat competitions in the country.
Competing on Sept. 17 and 18, 2011 are more than 120 dragon boat teams ranging from novice to masters levels. Each long, narrow boat, decorated with a dragon’s head and tail, holds 20 paddlers, a drummer to set the pace, and a helmsman. Winning requires speed, endurance and synchronicity, as evidenced in this photo album of the races.
Besides the dragon boating throughout Saturday and Sunday, the free festival has a boat load of on-shore entertainment and activities--such as taiko drumming and other music, lion dance performances, acrobatic and martial arts demonstrations, and magic and yo-yo stunts. Kids can tackle art projects, games and a rock climbing wall.
You can try sitting in a dragon boat (on land), get your body fat tested by Kaiser Permanente and feast from a variety of food booths and food trucks.
Origins of Dragon Boat Racing and the Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon boat racing began in China more than 2,000 years ago. It’s the center of a traditional festival that falls on the fifth day of the fifth Chinese lunar month--officially named Duanwu Jie(literally, “double-fifth festival”) and informally called “Dragon Boat Festival.” Duanwu Jie is the equivalent of the Gregorian calendar’s June 6, 2011. So why are the San Francisco dragon boat races in September?
Because dragon boating has become a very competitive sport, the San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival says. Races in North America and the rest of the world are staggered so that major teams can travel to and enter multiple competitions. And San Francisco’s weather is usually best around August and September.
There are various theories about the origin of Duanwu Jie or Dragon Boat Festival: It was an occasion for rice farmers to pray for plenty of water; it was a tribute to the dragon, the most powerful of the Chinese zodiac animals; because 5 is an unlucky number, it was a day to ward off evil spirits by beating drums.
The most popular legend is that the Dragon Boat Festival honors Qu Yuan, a wise poet and upstanding minister to the Chu State during China’s Warring States period (475 - 221 BC). The Chu emperor, swayed by jealous, corrupt ministers who slandered Qu, exiled him. The Chu state began to erode. When it was invaded and conquered by a neighboring state, Qu drowned himself in a river--on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 278 B.C.
Fishermen raced out in their boats to look for Qu, without success. They pounded drums and slammed their paddles in the water to keep evil spirits away, and threw in sticky rice dumplings (zongzi) so that fish would eat those instead of Qu’s body.
Since then, Chinese have commemorated the anniversary of Qu's death by racing dragon boats and making and eating sticky rice dumplings.
San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival
Sept. 17 & 18, 2011
At California Avenue & Avenue D, Treasure Island. Free.
Transportation: Free parking. Free shuttle service to race site from 4th and Mission streets (outside the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 55 Fourth St.) and from Kearny near Sacramento street, between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm.
