From where did the dragon boating came and how it became popular?

Dragon boating festival, generally called as Duanwujie in Chinese is celebrated on the 5th of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. For thousand years this traditional festival has been passed down from one generation to the next. It has been marked by eating Zongazi (Steamed glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) and by racing in dragon boats. On the way of Duanwu, people raced in dragon boats to entertain the god and offered Zongazi as a treat.

The celebration of dragon boating festival consists of two major activities, eating Zongazi and racing in dragon boats. Zongazi is the most popular food for the festival, whereas dragon boat racing is the most popular activity during the festival, especially in Southern china.

Today dragon boating races have become very popular all over the world, and it still remains with many of its original features. Such as, it consists of 22 crew members, a drummer, steers person and 20 paddlers. Drummer maintains the rhythm of the paddlers, steers person controls the direction of the boat and paddlers move the boat to compete with other team members.

To take part in a dragon boat racing you don’t need to be there in Asia, as the water sport today is played in 60 countries. This includes part of Europe, Africa, America, Australia and Asia. With the formation of International dragon boating federation (IDBF), there formed Europe (EDBF) and Asian (ADBF) federations, which today conduct dragon boat races in these countries.

Dragon boating is the fastest growing international water sports today played in teams. It’s a team sport which promotes socialization of participants and offers great fun. It’s a water sport that encourages mass participation of the people and provides great enjoyment in the game.

Dragon boating is a water sport which makes a person wet, and thus one requires necessary clothing (shorts, ¾ pants), shoes (surf shoes), sunglasses etc. Along with such items, participants also need to buy dragon boat accessories like dragon boat paddle bag, dragon boat seat pad, paddle blade cover, so as to carry and protect their boat paddles.

With rising popularity of the water sport, dragon boat clubs have been formed today in many countries. They provide necessary training and conduct dragon boat events for people. Participants just need to buy dragon boat paddles and bring along with them. Dragon boat clubs provide life jackets to their club members and provide dragon boats to each group. Participants need to register themselves with a particular dragon boat club to enjoy the water sport.

Dragon boating sport today is very demanding water sport. It is played by many corporate houses and private organizations, as it bridges the communication gap between the team members, and builds strong relationship among each member of the sport. Thus looking this, sports paddle manufacturers today are providing customized dragon boat paddles in various colors and designs. They offer such paddles which are made up of carbon fibers and also has T-grip at the end, which provides a good grip to paddlers. So if you wish to get such paddles you can log on to hornetwatersports.com.

Author is presently working in Splashsys Company as a content writer. He enjoys writing about education, tourism, science and technology.