World Events - not what you think!

[glenn-k]

Jane, her chosen American name, is a  member of the old forum.  She  contacted me online last night, with the greeting, "Happy Dragon Boat Festival."

I have posted here about her before -she does computer graphic art for buildings in Beijing, China.  She is also learning English and doing quite good at it, trying to learn American sayings as well.  I always enjoy learnng of cultures in other parts of the world and this forum helps bring those parts of the world together.

A quick story on the Dragon Boat Festival.  It is now celebrated in many other parts of the world as an event many people enjoy.

Excerpts from: http://www.whatsonwhen.com/events/event.asp?/events/~14168.jml

The festival commemorates the death of a popular Chinese national hero, Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River during the 3rd century BC, in protest against a corrupt government. Legend has it that as locals attempted to rescue him, they beat drums to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep the fish from eating his body. During the festival period, people eat rice-and-meat dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and many look forward to swimming, or even simply dipping their hands in the water, to symbolise trying to save him.

Dragon Boat Video



The races take place on June 11th this year in Hong Kong and other places.

Jane said, It is so very, very long ago, yet people still remember him.  She also mentioned that the filled rice and meat dumplings are called zong-zi and eating them is something people all over seem to enjoy from what I've read on the net.

Glenn

[glenn-k]

When researching the Dragon Boat event I came across this even more enjoyable world event.

The Finnish Wife Carrying Championships.

Excerpt from the site:  

Race Pt 1
Here we have part one of our Finnish wife carrying championships. Competitors come from all over the world to take part in one of the world's most unusual racing events. We talk to competitors from Greece, a Sumo wrestler from Korea and a few jokers from Finland who are clearly more interested in making fun of the whole event rather than winning.

Wife Carrying Video



This event begins June 30th.