The Culture

Many Melburnians are, of course, familiar with the sights and sounds of dragon boating. Less well known is the ritual aspect of dragon boat racing that has a deep cultural heritage and springs from long held religious beliefs.

In China, the Festival is celebrated each year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. This is when the ancient Chinese paid their respects to dragons, who were believed to control rain and rule the water.

The colourful and traditional rite of the Dotting of the Eyes Ceremony is performed on the dragon boats each year before they race.

The boats are blessed and the dragons awakened. The dragon heads and tails are attached. A benediction ritual done with great pomp and ceremony follows with the making of offerings and the chanting of prayers to heavenly gods.

This ritual serves to ward off evil and to sanctify and bless the boats and make them fierce and, therefore, fit to compete in the exciting races.

The performance of this ritual and the staging of the dragon boat races shows a community's dedication to its god. In return, the members of the community will be protected from unfriendly spirits of the sea and blessed with happiness and prosperity.

A member of the community is invited to dot the eye of the dragons and afterwards the dragon's eyes will be drawn in red with a brush.

Dragon Boats are ceremonial craft. There is speculation that they descended from the voyaging canoes of Oceania and that similar craft performed a wide range of utilitarian functions in southern China through the mid-19th century. The boats have no practical application today other than racing. The paddles are another clue of an Oceania origin, as they are uncommon in the Chinese maritime tradition.

The boats are steered by a helmsman who stands at the rear of the boat and directs the boat with the aid of a steering oar. The strangest item on a dragon boat is a large drum at the bow. The drum is beaten in time with the first paddler on the starboard side, the stroke, and this dictates the boat's pace to the rest of the paddlers. Whilst the drummer is responsible for keeping the twenty paddlers in time, the steer is responsible for keeping the boat on a straight course.