The Hualien County Environmental Protection Bureau will be giving a green flavor to this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional activity held in May characterized by eating zongzi — a rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves — and colorful dragon boat races.
“Unlike traditional dragon boat competitions, our green competition will combine a cultural tradition with environmental awareness and creativity,” bureau Director-General Dai Wen-jian (戴文堅) told the Taipei Times.
The competition, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration and the Hualien County Government, is divided into two categories — Float and Command the Land, he said.
Both categories require contestants to build a dragon boat with environmentally friendly or recycled materials.
“While projects entering the Float a Boat category [open to all teams college-level or above] must be capable of holding at least one person over at least 50m, projects submitted to the Command the Land category [limited to students below college level] do not need to be able to float,” Dai said.
In addition, to allow more people to participate in the festivities, the bureau will host an egg painting competition for elementary school students, as well as a Green Creative Market Place, which will include a white elephant sale, a recycled-material garment fashion show and seminars on living an eco-friendly lifestyle, he said.
Several legends lie behind the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival. As the most popular one goes, the activity commemorates poet Qu Yuan (屈原), who served as a high governmental official for the ancient state of Chu (楚) in the Warring States Period in ancient China.
Legend has it that Qu, a talented poet and a loyal palatine to his lord, was exiled to the countryside on several occasions because his talents made him the subject of envy by other palatines.
At the time, Chu was the second-largest state after Qin (秦), which had a reputation for annexing other smaller states. To help Chu avoid a similar fate, Qu advised the lord of Chu to team up with the state of Qi (齊) to fight against the Qin.
But his advice was never heeded.
When Qu committed suicide in the Miluo River (汨羅江) on the day the lord of Chu was killed by Qin troops, local fishermen raced to the scene to retrieve his body, beating drums to scare off fish that would try to eat his body and dumping rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves to distract them.
Registrations are open until May 20 at www.hlepb.gov.tw.
The winners will be announced on May 31.
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