Dragon Boat Festival

Last night I went to a Disco to celebrate Ciara's birthday, my dearest friend. I didn't stay long because I had fever. I couldn't believe it! I tried to dance it out, but it didn't work out unfortunately.
Well, since my fever didn't go away and I was the only one dancing I decided to drive back home to watch Barcelona versus Manchester match! Yes, Barça won!

So, I woke up much better today after taking a medicine and sleeping heavily for 11 hours uninterruptedly and since today is a holiday in Taiwan I decided to drive to Taipei to enjoy one of the most popular festivals here, the Dragon Boat Festival!

It happened at Dajia Riverside Park with teams from Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, China, South Africa and Taiwan of course. Even though the day was dark, the people and the dragon boats brighted and colored the day in a wonderful way.

Families were having picnic and riding bikes, guys where playing baseball and/or basketball all along the park and besides watching the race, people where enjoying performance by local artists, and amusing themselves greatly with the many activities settled by the local government.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and is among one of the major holidays in Taiwan. The festival is an effort to ward off diseases and evil spirits. This is a very colorful tradition that has kept itself stronger year after year, going through centuries to the present day.

During this time of the year, people use to make an especial meal that became a very popular snack here in Taiwan. It's called "tzung tzu". It is said that after the poet-statesman Chu Yuan ended his life by drowning, people began throwing balls of sweet rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the Miluo River to keep the fish from eating the patriot's body.

It was a lovely day in a very busy week.