Submitted by urci on
~From July 18th to 21st, the 2019 Canadian Dragon Boat Championships & the 28th Regina Dragon Boat Festival held at the Wascana Lake. Over ten thousand people participated in this four-day-long event to experience a summer festival filled with excitement and camaraderie second to none.
The Canadian Dragon Boat Championships is one of the most exciting and competitive event in Canada. Its primary goal is to create the best and fairest racing experience for all. The event has been for 13 consecutive years, and each championship attracted dozens of boat crews. This is the very first time that the event held in Regina and there were about 200 groups from across Canada participated during the competition which reached a record in history.
In the opening ceremony, two huge inflatable dragons coming from the Confucius Institute at the University of Regina stand on two sides of the stage. The presence of the two dragons perfectly complemented the performance conducted by the CI Dragon Dance Team. The traditional rite “awakening the dragon” raised the curtain of this annual event that provided the local public with the astonishing presence of the “Chinese dragon” and a chance to experience the profound cultural essence of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.
After the fantastic performances, here came the most exciting part of all the celebrating activities of the festival ----the dragon boat racing! For this year, the local community warmly welcomed the two-day celebration wherein the national competition took place on the first day, and the Regina local competition the second day respectively. Different from previous competitions, a special boat is about 48 feet long with dragon head and tail was used in this year's competition, which looked like dragons lingering in the water and made the scene quite spectacular. This year is the seventh time that CI Dragon Boat Team participated in the festival. In the past two months, under the guidance of a professional coach, all the team members have worked hard during their indoor strength training, outdoor water training and team construction activities to be ready to race! In the competition, along with the encouraging drum beat, all paddlers sincerely cooperated and tenacious strived for victory.
In addition, the Confucius Institute at the University of Regina also presented stunning Chinese traditional folk dances for the local public, and held several culture-related activities themed in Dragon Boat Festival, such as Dragon Boat festival introduction, making zongzi, dragon boat puzzle, calligraphy, paper folding and many more that inspire the local people’s curiosity and interest to the Chinese culture. The diverse activities also contributed to build a more profound festival atmosphere.
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Honorable Ralph Goodale; Mr. Warren Steinley, MLA of Saskatchewan Government; Vice-President of International Dragon Boat Federation, Mr. Matthew Smith; President of Dragon Boat Canada, Mr. Scott Murray, President of Regina Dagon Boat Festival, Mr. Barry Eisenzimmer, and representatives from various walks of life in Regina attended this event.