The first annual Dragon Boat Festival came to Edmonds Thursday for an afternoon of food, dance and music. Sponsored by the Seattle Flying Dragon Boat Club, several community members and elected officials – including Lynnwood City Council Vice President Julieta Altamirano-Crosby and Mountlake Terrace City Councilmember Steve Woodard – had signed up to participate as dragon boat rowers.

After boarding two, colorful canoe-shaped boats that had a dragon’s head at their bow, they braved the churning waters just off of Olympic Beach near the Edmonds Waterfront Center and paddled a few laps around the two posts due west of the waterfront’s entrance.

The event was the vision of Asian Service Center (ASC) Executive Director Robert Ha and Edmonds Councilmember Will Chen. The nonprofit – founded by Ha, Chen and Crystal Xiao – was launched in 2023. The three had noticed that Snohomish County lacked community services for Asian immigrants and that most of these services are located in King County. 

“We are fortunate to have a great organization whose members take community service to heart through volunteerism and living the value of service above self,” Chen said. “Cultural diversity is the strength of our communities, and wonderful family events like the Dragon Boat Festival bring us together.”

Asian Service Center Board Director David Chan said that ASC’s intention is to help assimilate all immigrants – not just Asian immigrants – to life in the U.S. and Edmonds to be “productive residents.”

Traditionally, the Dragon Boat Festival (端午節) is held on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar year calendar, commemorating the legacy of the Chinese poet and prime minister Qu Yuan (屈原) during the Warring States Period in China (5th century B.C. to 221 B.C.). 

Qu Yuan died by suicide, driven by his despair over the the Qin army’s conquest of his homeland, the state of Chu. Despite his efforts to advise and reform his state, Qu Yuan faced exile and marginalization by the ruling elite. 

When the capital of Chu fell to the Qin forces in 278 B.C., Qu Yuan chose to end his life by drowning in the Miluo River –  a final act of protest and sorrow for his country’s downfall. Today, many people in China and Chinese communities worldwide honor his memory by racing dragon boats and making zongzi (粽子), sticky rice dumplings, to symbolize the efforts to save or recover his body from the river.

Some scholars say that it was a ritual to appease the dragon king, who controlled rainfall and rivers. 

Seattle-Kaohsiung Sister-City Association President Shiao-Yen Wu, who attended the Edmonds event, said that there are dragon boat races scattered around the Puget Sound area, including downtown Seattle and Lake Union. Wu added that the Seattle Flying Dragon Boat Club also races in Taiwan once a year.

“It’s a family event,” Wu said. “You can have a 9-year-old and a 99-year-old [do] a dragon boat race together. It’s a very good exercise. Today is the first year that Edmonds has a dragon boat event, and our hope is that it’s not the last year.”

— Story and photos by Nick Ng