Dragon Boat Festival

I came back to Bemidji yesterday and the lakefront was buzzing with activity. It reminded me of the 4th of July at the lakefront. As it turns out that Bemidji is having a Dragn Boat Festival. The festival seeks coorperate sponsership and raises money for charities and has lots of fun doing it. I thought this was some strange thing Bemidji dreamed up untill I did a Google search and saw these events have been going on for a long time and all over the world. Below is a article about Dragon Boat Festivals.
One of today’s most colorful and widespread festivals was born of legend more than 2,000 years ago. The Dragon Boat Festival originated in China but now is celebrated in such disparate places as: Bergen, Norway; Prague, Czech Republic; Berlin, Germany; Rome, Italy; Auckland, New Zealand; Melbourne, Australia; and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Festival elements vary from place to place and might include entertainment, a marketplace, specialty food vendors, art exhibitions and demonstrations, and even a parade. But the highlight is always the Dragon Boat Race.
Heavenly Dragon
Dragon Boat Racing began along the life sustaining rivers in the valleys of southern China as a fertility rite, performed to ensure plentiful crops. Races, intended to simulate dragon battles, were staged to awaken the hibernating Heavenly Dragon and to encourage the rains needed for prosperity.
The boats were long canoes decorated to resemble dragons, with open mouthed heads projecting from their bows and scaly tails on their sterns. Each could hold a team of 20 or more rowers plus a drummer, a hand clapper and as many as four singers. Smaller boats carrying food and wine for the competitors might accompany them.
For many centuries, Dragon Boat Races were violent naval battles. Crews of competing boats would throw stones and strike at one another with sticks, while people on the riverbanks cheered their favorite teams and pelted opposing boats with rocks or other objects. And, perhaps a throwback to the ancient human sacrifices to the Heavenly Dragon, it was believed to be unlucky if there wasn’t at least one drowning.

Team Spirit
The special canoes used in Dragon Boat Races apparently have changed little over the centuries. They still are designed to resemble dragons, with ornately carved and brightly colored heads and tails. Before a boat enters competition, a priest must perform a ritual known as “awakening the dragon” by painting its eyes.
Dragon boats generally measure about 40 feet in length. Their crews usually include 20 paddlers, sitting two abreast, with a steersman at the back and a drummer, who sets the rhythm for the paddlers, and a flag catcher at the front. Any number of boats may compete in a race, with the winner being the first team to grab a flag at the end of the course.
After a race, the water is considered “blessed,” and in some places, people traditionally dip their hands or even swim in the “dragon boat water” in the belief that it will bring them health for the rest of the year.
Modern races in many countries focus less on myths and legends and more on what is referred to as the “spirit of the dragon,” the experience of working as a team to reach a common goal. Serious dragon boaters train throughout the year and sometimes travel around the world to compete in more than one annual race.