Happy Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival, known in Chinese as "端午节" (Duanwu Festival), occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. The focus of the celebrations includes eating the rice dumpling 粽子 (zongzi) and racing dragon boats.

Here in Boston, it's possible for you to spend a traditional Duanwu Festival with friends. HOW? Hear me out. Zongzi can be purchased from Chinese super markets like Super 88. You can choose fillings from pork, red-bean, beef, and even vietnamese style no-filling ones. It's really convenient, and they're pretty cheap too.

For racing dragon boats, you can go to the annual Boston-Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival that takes place down the charles river. This year, the Festival was on June 12th and 13th.
You can take the redline and get off at Harvard Square. It's located between Harvard Bridge (JFK Street) and the Western Ave Bridge, with most of the Festival activities on the Cambridge side of the river.


View Boston Dragon Boat Festival Site in a larger map

You can enjoy drum dances, yo-yo performances, music, and Lion dances entertain crowds of spectators, making this one of the biggest Boston Chinese cultural events of the year. The races start early in the morning when the weather is still cool, and cultural activities begin at noon, with the "Eye-Dotting Ceremony" to paint the eyes of the dragons on each boat, accompanied by traditional Chinese drumming on both banks of the Charles. Here's a clip about this year's dragon boat racing.



Boston Dragon Boat Festival - Harvard Mixed Team Races.

It's a pretty cool opportunity to join when you miss the good old times in China. I'm in for the next year's Dragon Boat Festival, how about you?