Ride your dragon

Something´s moving in South-East Asia! And I´m not talking about -glups- tsunamis... Let´s put tragedies aside and think about funnier things, because this corner of the World is full of celebrations you shouldn´t miss. One of these funny and colourful events is called Singapore´s Dragon Boat Festival. It´s a spectacular show where you can enjoy lots of beautifully decorated boats. It takes place from 30 June to 1 July every year.

Singapore is a city-state. It was colonized by the British Empire in 1819, occupied by Japan during World War II and ruled again by the British in 1945. In 1963 it became a Malaysian state but two years later acquired independence. Since then, it´s a parliamentary republic and its population´s about 4,483,900. Mandarin, Malay, Tamil and English (or “Singlish”, their local colloquial English dialect) are spoken due to the mixture of communities.

Dragon boat racing is popular all over the area. The legend goes back more than two millennia in Chinese history, when a poet jumped in the river because he was upset by government corruption. Local fishermen tried to save him but they failed. The racing was introduced in 1978 when Singapore was invited to participate in the Hong Kong Races. Soon afterwards, Singapore started their own race and next year, international teams were invited. You are in time, chase your dragon and come along!

Carlos Alegría