The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival iscelebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons.Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first.

Traditionally held on the fifth day of the fifth moon on the lunar calendar -- late May to mid June on the solar calendar (June 11th this year) -- the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the life and death of Qu Yuan a minister who advocated reforms in his home state of Chu. The King refused to listen to Qu Yuan's advice to avoid conflict with the Qin Kingdom and banished him from the state of Chu. In exile, Qu Yuan wrote poetry expressing his concern for his country and people. In 278, when Qu Yuan heard that his home had been invaded, he drowned himself in the Mi Lo River.

Every year, right here on the Charles River,Dragon Boat Festival transforms old traditions into an exciting sporting and cultural event. The sponsors and organizers with hundreds of volunteers work tirelessly to give the viewer a very memorable summer day each year. The boat races are held at the Charles River throughout the day, where folks from all over New England, some even from Toronto,Canada rush to take part.There is an inviting spread of Asian food along the Memorial Drive.  In the arts and crafts tent, Chinese arts and craft activities and demonstrations are held throughout the afternoon.

The most popular place to hang out in the afternoon is the performance tents where the festival's spirit is given a new dimension though rhythmic drumming and dancing. Chinese dragon and martial arts are performed to the reverberating chinese drumming and the Taiko drumming from Japan is a special treat to watch and listen. This year, for the first time the festival brought Bharathanatyam - South Indian Classical dance by Tejas, a group by three Boston based dancers.

Termed as the most refreshing dance that evening, it was presented by Sudarshan Belsare, Meena Subramanyam, Soumya Ramanathan  and featured a series of traditional bharathanaytam compositions, but entirely rechoreographed by the dancers paying homage to Mother Nature. The choice of compositions, comprising of all very vibrant and brisque abstract movements caught the attention of the festive crowd in the first few seconds. The audience were throughly engaged by the non stop 30 minute show and some even came in again for the second performance.  The warmth and appreciation that the dancers received was overwhelming. The shutterbugs were hard at work not just during the show but long after, when folks wanted pictures with the captivating dancers. The introduction of Bharathanatyam was so stunning and colourful that one hopes to see it as a regular feature at the festival here in future.

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