Dragon boats bring stroke of luck - 10th July 2020

With a history stretching back thousands of years, Tuen Ng Jit, the Dragon Boat Festival, holds a special place in the South East Asian calendar.

Current coronavirus restrictions have meant Hong Kong’s annual races, usually attended by Dragon Boat teams from across the globe, as well as thousands of onlookers, have taken on a more local flavour.

Nevertheless, Hong Kong’s success in controlling coronavirus has allowed organisers to host a much more modest, one day event, thanks to support from local organisations.

12 teams were assembled, including Charlotte and Quentin, proud to be continuing this ancient custom.

Charlotte: “We need to train keeping the social distancing rules, so we try to really live with that and comply with this, but we are happy to be back, we know that we need to be prudent, so that the races, well we can be back for training and races.”

Quentin: “It was amazing, the organisation has done a really good job, they kept all the traditional ceremonies and the atmosphere was really really cool, really nice.

Charlotte: “Yeah you can see everyone's happy to be here.”

Since the true origins of this historic tradition are lost to posterity, superstitions abound, including that it was a way to rid people of disease and misfortune, and such hope springs eternal.