The Chester Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boating is believed to have started in China some 2,000 years ago with the death of the popular poet Qu Yuan (340 - 278 BC.) Chinese history describes the fourth century BC. as a time of shifting alliances and much treachery, so when Qu Yuan cautioned the King of Chu against signing a treaty with the neighbouring State of Qin, the King was very suspicious of his motives. Misinterpreting Qu Yuan’s intentions as an attempt to assume greater political power, the King banished Qu Yuan from the Kingdom.

Popular with the local people however, Qu Yuan wandered the countryside and as he did so, composed some of China’s greatest poetry expressing his fervent love and his deep concern for his country and its people. When he later learnt Chu had been devastated at the hands of the Qin, in a fit of depression he committed suicide by leaping into the Mi Lo River to drown.

As news of his suicide reached the villagers, they immediately took to their boats and raced to the spot where he drowned so they might recover the body of their beloved poet. They beat drums to frighten away the fish and threw rice and ‘zong zi’ (a type of glutinous rice wrapped up in vine leaves) into the river to prevent the braver fish from eating his body.

Both the act of beating drums and throwing rice are traditions that have carried through to today’s dragon boat races.