Bai San

WORDS: ALEX KENT | IMAGES: JOHANNE ROYDS-JONES AND GRACE LEUNG

n 1 May the May 1st, the Royal X dragon boat team inaugurated the start of the paddling season with a Bai San ceremony. Loosely translated as "Paying Respect to God", the ceremony has its roots in traditional Chinese maritime culture. For hundreds of years, sailors have made offerings to the sea gods to ensure fair winds and safe passage.

For nine years, Royal X has held its own Bai San to bring the team together, commemorate the start of the season and share a feast of traditional food including roast pig, chicken and goose.

Prior to the ceremony, the team was hard at work on the water, split among four boats, training for the Club’s own Middle Island race last month. The day’s training focused on the highly technical turns required for the race’s particular format. It is not unknown for boats to capsize while executing these kinds of turns, which involve spinning 180 degrees around a buoy after accelerating down the course at full speed.

After training, the boats were loaded once more for the Bai San ceremony, this time adorned with dragon heads, tails, and drums. Three boats made three successive ceremonial charges from the sea towards the shore while the drummers threw joss paper into the air as an offering to the sea. As the boats approached the shore at full speed each time, the order to “hold!” was given and our pack of dragons reared up in waves of foam as we braced our paddles in the water and joss paper rained down all around us.

Having paid our respects, we paddled back to shore where the feast and our friends were waiting for us.