The Dragon Boat comes to us from ancient China, accompanied by a legendary story.

Legend of Qu Yuan

More than 2,400 years ago, the region we know today as central China was divided into 7 kingdoms vying for supremacy. One of them, Qu Yuan, was a defender of political integrity and loyalty, a man who tried to preserve the autonomy of the state of Chu. The monarch of Chu, manipulated and deceived by the other corrupt ministers, banished Qu Yuan, his most loyal advisor.

In exile and with words as his only weapons, the minister became a poet, and to defend his country, he wrote several poems on the situation of his time and the future. Legend has it that, after witnessing the invasion of the state of Chu by fighters from the Chin Kingdom, Qu Yuan, in protest, entered the Miluo River holding a large boulder with the firm intention of committing suicide.

Knowing what had happened, people went to the river on their boats to save Qu Yuan's life by beating drums and causing splashes with their paddles to protect the poet's body from fish and evil river spirits.

His body was never found, and legend has it that the river dragon took the soul of this noble and loyal minister.

Since then, every fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, Qu Yuan's heroic death has been commemorated. Various groups of paddlers take to the sea in decorated pirogues resembling a dragon, the dragon that took his spirit forever.