Here are some photos of the Dragon Boat Carnival of last weekend. Hong Kong has reason to be festive this month as on July 1st the passing of Hong Kong from the British Crown to China 15 years ago was celebrated. The Dragon Boat Carnival seemed to be a logical extension of these festivities starting on the 2nd of July and lasting up to July 8th in the picturesque Victoria Harbour.
Dragon Boats are important for Hong Kong. A festival of the same name (also called Tuen Ng) is celebrated each year on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the local moon calendar. This year it coincided with midsummer -St John’s eve of the Western calendar on June 23rd. It is a huge celebration where crews of 20 peddlers race in elaborately decorated 10 meter long boats with dragon heads to the beat of the drum. All this is to commemorate the death of the statesman Qu Yuan who in the 3rd century BC drowned himself in a river in the Hunan province in China, about 600 km north of Hong Kong, to protest against a corrupt government. The race takes place early in the morning in two locations, the Tai O traditional fishing village on Lantau island (where the big Buddha is) and in Stanley, southern side of Hong Kong island. Nowadays it is a hugely popular and colourful tourist spectacle.
thetravellingme 
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