Cambridge College Sponsors Catch 22 to Race at the 35th Annual Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cambridge College will sponsor the rowing team, Catch 22 at the 35th Annual Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival on Sunday, June 15, 2014, 12pm – 5pm.  The event will be held at the John W. Weeks Foot Bridge on the Charles River between JFK Avenue and Western Avenue.

The dragon boat race will start early in the morning, while the cultural programs are set to begin at noon. Come cheer for Cambridge College as we race down the river among 62 teams from various Colleges, high schools, financial institutions, health care organizations and many others. Bring your family and friends and enjoy a day filled with many cultural festivities along the Charles River, including East Asian Cuisine, Dragon Dance, Japanese and Chinese Drumming, Cambodian Dance, Asian Arts demonstrations, awards and prizes.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, is usually held on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar, which varies from year to year on the western calendar, but usually falls between late May and Mid June. The history of the dragon boat races originate from the commemoration of the life and death of Qu Yuan (340 – 278 BC), who was a poet and minster of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty in China. Qu was banished from the state of Chu for opposing the alliance due to the King's decision to ally with the powerful state of Qin.  Twenty-eight years later in 278 BC, when the state of Qin invaded the state of Chu and took over the Chu capital, Qu committed suicide and drowned in the Miluo River.  When his body was nowhere to be found, local people race their boats down the river and started to throw zongzi (sticky rice dumplings wrapped with bamboo leaves) into the river, with the hopes of preserving his body by filling the fish with the zongzi.

The Boston Dragon Boat Festival is among the oldest in the United States. It brings a community of diverse cultures from the Greater Boston and surrounding area together to celebrate and promote Asian history and culture. Today, dragon boat teams from the Greater Boston area, New York, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire come to Boston to participate at the Boston Dragon Boat Festival each year to celebrate the unique culture and spirit of the Duanwu holiday.

About Cambridge College
Cambridge College (www.cambridgecollege.edu) is dedicated to providing academically excellent, time-efficient, and cost-effective higher education for a diverse population of adult learners for whom those opportunities may have been limited or denied.  Founded in 1971, Cambridge College is a private non-profit institution of higher education accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, (NEASC CIHE). Comprised of four schools –Undergraduate Studies, Education, Psychology and Counseling, and Management – Cambridge College enrolls more than 8,000 students each year in professional education and undergraduate, graduate and doctorate-level degree programs at the main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts and across seven locations nationwide in Springfield and Lawrence, MA; Chesapeake, VA; Memphis, TN; Augusta, GA; San Juan, PR; and Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The College accepts selected transfer credits for both graduate and undergraduate programs, and schedules evening and weekend classes designed for adult learners. 

About Catch 22
Catch 22 was born out of New York City's Flushing Bay in 2011, which has been a breeding ground for dragon boat crews for years. Catch 22 traveled to compete in cities all along the Northeast, including Boston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Toronto, Washington D.C., and more. In three short seasons, we have paddled our way to the top, and will represent the USA at the 2014 IDBF Club Crew World Championships in Ravenna, Italy!

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SOURCE Cambridge College