The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival NYC 2024 is the New York City version of a popular Chinese festival. It’s a family weekend of races, live entertainment, food, crafts, and more.
Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival NYC 2024
New York City’s 2024 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival is at Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens; on Saturday-Sunday, August 3-4, 2024, from 9am – 5pm, rain or shine. FREE. 🇭🇰
In Chinese tradition, 2024 is the year of the wood dragon. Dragons represent good fortune, strength, and power. Going to the Festival should be extra lucky this year. Flushing, Queens is the home of one of New York City’s most vibrant Chinatowns. If you are still hungry after the festival, you can have a good Chinese dinner.
Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival NYC
New York City’s Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival was founded by New York’s Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office over 30 years ago in 1990. The first festival was held on the Hudson River in Battery Park City with four teak wood dragon boats.Today it is one of the largest Dragon Boat Festivals in the United States. Over 180+ teams with over 2,000 athletes compete in front of a crowd of 40,000+ spectators.
The New York Festival is in late July or early August. Because this is New York, it’s grown from a Chinese festival into a multicultural festival.
Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival tradition began in Hunan Province which is inland from Hong Kong in Southern China. It was originally a summer solstice festival honoring water spirits. The dragon is a metaphor for the powerful forces of nature. It’s one of the stories that people all over the world tell to explain things.
In Chinese tradition, many festivals are attributed to the death of some great person. Over time the festival became associated with Qu Yuan. He was an advisor to a Chinese leader during the Warring States Period (481-221 BCE). Qu Yuan warned the emperor not to trust another leader. The emperor ignored him and sent Qu Yuan into exile. Hearing that the other leader overthrew the emperor, Qu Yuan drowned himself in sorrow. Many other stories have been blended into the tradition over time.
It’s said that Qu Yuan became a water spirit when he died. To keep the spirits happy, you feed them. People do this all over the world. Qu Yuan’s friends would throw rice into the water, but it was always taken by a water dragon.
The story goes that Qu Yuan later appeared to the people and suggested they wrap the rice in bamboo leaves so the dragon wouldn’t eat it. This is the origin of the festival’s rice-ball throwing tradition. They are rice dumplings called “Zongzi” in Mandarin. By the way they are delicious.
Looking at these rice balls reminds us of Puerto Rican pasteles and Mexican tamales. They use different starches, but are a similar form of food. They are also often used for celebrations. Rice is the main starch in East and Southeast Asia. It is grown in flooded fields, so water is important. The annual flood cycle is also vital to farming. A very ancient human concept is that to get something, you must give up something. So people throw a little rice to the water dragons to hope for a good harvest. We all do things like this, or at least we used to. By the way, in China, the festival is held in May near the summer solstice when rice is planted.
Today, there are dragon boat festivals all over the world.
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