Paddles Up!. Arlene Chan
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Название: Paddles Up!
Автор: Arlene Chan
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781770706071
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Fragrant pouches are made with cotton or silk and filled with aromatic herbs to prevent illness. These are given to children during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Dotting the eye of the dragon is the ceremonial rite that brings life to the dragon boat and ends its slumber in storage. A local dignitary in Thunder Bay, Ontario, is given this honorary task.
An ancient ritual that continues to be practised, though without its deep religious roots, is the “awakening of the dragon” after the long sleep in storage. Typically, a Daoist priest conducts the ceremony with chanting to ward off evil spirits. Blessing the boats and the burning of paper money and incense makes the boats strong and fierce for the races to follow. The traditional “dotting the eye” ceremony in modern times involves community dignitaries awakening the dragon by dabbing red paint on the dragon’s eye. Red is the colour that symbolizes heat, summer, and fire and represents good fortune and prosperity.
When we get out on the water, I leave it all on the dock, secure in the knowledge that I am surrounded by a strong group of like-minded women who share the same issues, who care deeply about each other and who will work their hardest to reach a common goal …
— Nancy Jones, Toronto
Women were not allowed in dragon boats until modern times. Rather, they paddled in phoenix boats.6 In Chinese mythology, the dragon exemplified the masculine principle of yang and the phoenix, the feminine principle of yin in the Chinese ideology of cosmic harmony. Both the sun and the dragon are considered to be male (yang) forces and are most powerful at this time of the year.7 Once the dragon was awakened in the ceremony, it had to be treated with respect and protected from anything that might diminish its yang character, such as contact with women. As a result, dragon boat racing was a ritual celebration that excluded women.
Of all the customs associated with the Dragon Boat Festival, none rival that of the preparation and eating of zongzi, sticky rice dumplings wrapped in leaves. The story behind these rice delicacies is linked to Qu Yuan. After the villagers arrived too late in their boats to save Qu Yuan from drowning, some say that they threw rice into the water, which the fish or the River Dragon, by other accounts, would eat instead of Qu Yuan’s body. Others say that the rice was to feed the spirit of Qu Yuan in his afterlife. While the real reason remains obscured, the custom of eating zongzi has endured until today. Zongzi can be purchased year round at Chinese restaurants, stores, and bakeries. And, Chinese families continue making these delicacies during the Dragon Boat Festival, their own special recipes handed down through generations.
Zongzi from Beijing are filled with sweet ingredients, like bean paste, walnuts, and dates. In southern China, they are made with salty fillings, like roast duck, chicken, peanuts or salted duck eggs. The third type is preserved in a strong alkaline solution.
We wear kilts and have lucky Chinese coins on our team jersey. We eat Asian foods and Scottish haggis — sometimes combined. It’s become more than just being social…. It’s become a family.
— Todd Wong, Vancouver, British Columbia
Dragon boat races, rooted in the ancient past of gods, ghosts, and superstitions, treaded unfamiliar waters in Western communities for thousands of years. Only recently have they become sporting events that promise fanfare, drums, and excitement. Traditions and rituals are re-enacted in ceremonies to awaken and dot the eye of the dragon, and in dragon boat racing itself. The Dragon Boat Festival, the most international of all festivals from China, is the only one embraced by Chinese and non-Chinese alike. The lure of dragon boating arouses deep passion in the hearts of men and women, young and old.
NOTES
1. Carol Stephanchuk and Charles Wong, Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts: Festivals of China (San Francisco: China Books, 1992).
2. Bian Yi, China Daily, November 29, 1999.
3. With the fall of the last independent state of Chu, the Qin kingdom unified all other states into the first Chinese empire to be ruled by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. The English word for China is considered to be derived from Qin (pronounced “Cheen”).
4. International Dragon Boat Federation Handbook, 4th edition (IDBF, 2004).
5. Ibid.
6. Henning Wiekhorst, Hong Kong: Mother of Dragons (Hong Kong: Creative-Dragon-Works, 2006).
7. Another translation of “Duan Wu” is “maximum sun” or “upright sun.” On the fifth day of the fifth month, the male forces (yang) are at maximum intensity and the sun reaches it highest position in the sky.
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