Dragon boat festival for unity

THE Chinese Professionals Club of Australia and the Chinese Australian Cultural Society Ballarat are inviting the community to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival next weekend.

The event on June 15 from 10.30am until 4pm at Durham Point, Lake Wendouree, will have a Dragon Boat paddling experience, entertainment, stalls, face painting and other activities.

“The highlight is the Dragon Boat paddling experience where we have the Ballarat Dragon Boat Club and a couple of boats out on the lake,” Helina Guo, secretary for the Chinese Professionals Club of Australia, said.

“People are welcome to get on the boat and have a paddle and people from the club will be teaching.

“It’s teamwork, it’s fun and for a lot of people it will be the first time in their life.”

The aim of the event is to foster inclusivity, celebrate diversity and promote unity.

“I think sometimes education can be deemed boring but through fun activities we can spread the ideas and the stories,” Ms Guo said.

“Especially since Ballarat is a city where there is a lot of Chinese tradition and heritage so it is the perfect place to promote this festival.”

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday, and it gets rid of bad fortune and commemorates Qu Yuan, a poet and prime minister of the southern Chinese state of Chu during the Warring States period.

“It is a Chinese traditional festival that always falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Calander,” said Ms Guo.

“Usually, May in Chinese Culture is deemed an unlucky time of the year, so the holiday is there to get rid of the bad fortune.”