Dragon Boat Festival Teaser

It is one week until Colorado's Dragon Boat Festival. This year the Consul-General of Japan will be there. I was invited to take part in a cosplay event (cosplay is costuming to themes of literature, tv, cinema, and manga art).

For those readers new to my blogs I run 2 blogs one on Geography and one on Costuming. For the next 2 weeks I have the boon to discuss both together. So both blogs will be sharing about Colorado's Dragon Boat Festival. For those interested in costumes I will be showing off my favorites of the event and a little bit about the participants. For those interested in Geography I will be discussing the influence of Asian Cultures in the Pikes Peak Region. So after this initial post each blog will have a different topic, Visit my other blog here http://eyesoncolorado.blogspot.com

To start off the week:

The rich diversity of cultures in the Colorado region allows Americans and tourist to take part in many cultural events. One such event on July 30th is the Dragon Boat Festival held at Sloan Lake Park in Denver Colorado. For information about the event and directions for parking please follow this link http://www.cdbf.org/
The Dragon Boat Festival (or Duanwu festival) is a holiday originating in China and is associated with a number of Asian cultures today. It is held the 5th day of the 5th month (June 6th in the US traditionally), Denver Colorado Celebrates it on July 30th this 2011.

" The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan (Chinese: 屈原) (c. 340 BCE – 278 BCE) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw lumps of rice into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing." ~Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival

Well I don't want to spoil to much today so I will post more soon.
Hope you can join us next Saturday July 30th at Sloan Park, Denver Colorado.