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El proper dimecres 16 de Juny serà festa a Taiwan per celeberar el «Dragon Boat Festival«. Feu un cop d’ull al vídeo promocional

El Dragon Boat Festival és una de les festes més importants dins la cultura xinesa. En el Dragon Boat Festival es recorda la vida de Qu Yuan, un poeta xinès, que va acabar per llançar-se ell mateix al riu Miluo (historia completa, en anglès). La gent del poble van correr cap a les seves barques per intentar salvar-lo. Com era una persona molt apreciada van tirar arròs embolicat amb una fulla de bambú per evitar que els peixos es mengessin el cos. Per mantenir els esperits dolents allunyats feien sonar tambors.

Des d’aquell dia, en el 5è dia del 5è mes llunar, es conmemora l’esdeveniment menjant «rice dumplings» (zong zi) i fent curses de «dragon boats».

Zong zi (regal de la Nina) + tapa de fuet (fet a casa)

A Taipei, aquest any, les curses del Dragon Boat es van celebrar del 11 al 13 de Juny prop del pont de Danzhi al nord de la ciutat. Visiteu la web oficial si en voleu saber tots els detalls.

Malgrat la pluja persitent l’Anna, jo mateix i tres amigues ens vam trobar el diumenge al midgia a l’estació de metro Dazhi i vam anar cap al riu Danshui per veure les finals del Dragon Boat 2010. Era el primer cop per a tothom i no sabiem gaire que ens anavem a trobar.

Com a qualsevol lloc a Taiwan, la primera cosa que et trobes es menjar: popets a la brasa, salstixes, tofu, sopes, noodles, etc. en un seguit de petits locals en forma de fireta.

A la zona de sortida hi havia molt equips escalfant i fent tota mena de rituals abans de començar les curses.

De manera simplificada, les curses del Dragon Boat funcionen així:

Pas#1 – Carrega al teu equip a la barca. Quatre equips a cada cursa.

Pas#2 – Preparar-se per sortir

Pas#3 – Rema! Rema! Rema!. La persona del davant toca el tambó per mantenir el ritme i la persona del darrera manté la direcció amb el timó.

Pas#4 – Agafa la bandera

Pas#5 – Mirar els resultats oficials. Com podeu veure en algunes curses el resultat és molt ajustat.

Aquí tenius algunes fotos més de la jornada

Hi ha moltes categories (Homes general, dones general, institucions, universitats, etc.). El guanyador de l’última cursa (Homes general), va ser l’equip nacional de Filipines (01:57.80 min) i es van endur els 400.000 TWD (~10.000 Euros!) de premi.

A Taiwan hi ha força immigrants. Hi ha fins i tot una pel.lícula taiwanesa, Pinoy Sunday, que explica les aventures de dos immigrants intentant portar un sofà cap al seu dormitori als afores de la ciutat.

Wednesday June 16th will be a bank holiday in Taiwan to celebrate the «Dragon Boat Festival«. See the advert here below.

Dragon Boat Festival is one of the major holidays in Chinese culture. Dragon Boat Festival is a celebration of the life of Qu Yuan, a Chinese poet, who ended up committing suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo river (full story here). The townspeople rushed to their boats to try to save him. Since he was much loved, they tried to prevent the fish from eating his body by throwing rice dumplings into the water. They beat drums to keep evil spirits away.

To this day, the 5th day of the 5th lunar month is celebrated by eating rice dumplings (zong zi) and racing dragon boats.

Zong zi (present from Nina) + tapa de fuet (home made)

At Taipei, this year, Dragon Boat races took place from June 11th-13th close to the Dazhi bridge in the north of the city. Check out the official website for all details about the event

Despite the rain a group of 5, including Anna and myself, gathered on Sunday at the Dazhi MRT station and headed towards Danshui river to enjoy the Dragon Boat finals. It was the first time for everybody so we didn’t know exactly what we were going to see.

As anywhere in Taiwan, the first thing you will find is food: squids, sausages, tofu, soups, etc. in a line of small shops.

At the starting area there were a lot of teams warming up and performing different kind of rituals before the race.

The Dragon Boat races, in a simple step by step process approach go like that:

Step#1 – Load the team into the boat. Four teams on each race.

Step#2 – Get ready to start the race.

Step#3 – Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!. The guy in the front beat a drum to keep the rhythm and the one in the back will take care of the direction.

Step#4 – Catch the flag

Step#5 – Check official results. As you can see in some races the difference is really minimal between the winner and the second

Some additional pictures in this slideshow

There are various categories (Men’s Open, Women’s Open, Institutions, etc.). The winner of the last race, the Men’s open category, was Philippines National team (01:57.80 min) so they took the top prize of 400.000 TWD (~10.000 Euros!).

Immigrants from Philippines are quite numerous in Taiwan. There is a Taiwanese movie, Pinoy Sunday, that is focused on the adventures of two of them trying to take a sofa to their dormitory at the outskirts of Taipei City.