Hundreds of people lined the streets yesterday to watch the colourful parade of dragons and paddling crews to mark the beginning of the second Montreal Dragon Boat Festival.

The two-day festival starts Saturday, with 66 teams from Taiwan, Bangladesh, the United States and Canada.

Above the drumming, shouts of "Wong, Wong, Wong," were heard throughout the streets as the team representing the Wong Wun Sun Association of Montreal rounded up the parade with enthusiastic cheers.

Gary Wong, a member of the association, tried to organize a team for last year's races, but missed the deadline. This year, he called friends, family and association members to join his team.

Most of the crew didn't know how to row and it took Wong and other organizers six weeks to get the 29-member crew ready for the race.

He said the first practice was the most challenging.

"It was chaotic," Wong said. "But, it was fun"

Everyone got wet, including the substitute paddlers, and two people ended up in the water. Wong, however, said the most important thing was that "the boat didn't capsize."

Decorated with a dragon head, each boat is 13.5 meters long and weighs 590 kilograms. A drummer beats out a rhythm for the 20 men and women paddlers and a steerman, who directs the boat during the 640-metre course.

Thirty-two year old Elizabeth Celere of Montreal said the first few practices were hard, because although she paddled in a canoe a couple of times, she was not prepared for the dragon boats.

"It's a lot more work," Celere said. "You work muscles that you never felt before."

Her fiance paddled in last year's competition for another team, but they both wanted to paddle for the Wong Wun Sun Association because it's part of his family tradition. Being a part of the festival is helping become part of the community, she said.

"It gives us an opportunity to do something else in his commnity," she said. "to get to know his family and friends."

Karen Wong, 22, was disappointed she didn't get to participate in last year's races. But when her father, a Wong Wun Sun Association member, told her about the team, she signed up right away.

"This is a part of the culture. I really wanted to be a part of that."

The races began in China almost 2,300 years ago to commemorate the death of Chu Yuan, a poet and minister of the Ch'u state of China.

Yuan's efforts to save the land during the Warring States Period were ignored by King Huai, and he was exiled. After the Chin state attacked the land and occupied the territory, in 290 BC, Yuan threw himself in the Miluo River.

Saddened by the loss, the people held a boat race on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Lunar calendar to remind children of the importance of uniting and protecting their country.

The races start Saturday at the Olympic Basin on Ile Notre Dame. The top local team will represent Montreal at the Toronto International Dragon Boat Festival later this summer.

Although the Wong Wun Sun team will be competing against experienced teams, Celere said the team has come a long way from that first practice.

"The practices are better and better every time," she said. "We can feel ourselves getting into the groove and the power of it. Everybody's confident that we'll do well."

Source: The Gazette - July 21, 1997, Page A3