Festivals, Hong Kong

This celebration takes place on the 15th day of the 8th moon (usually August/Sept) and celebrates a 14th century uprising against the Mongols. The conspirators wrote plans for the revolt on pieces of paper baked in cakes and then distributed them to compatriots.

Moon Cakes are one of the delicacies at this time and can be filled with sesame seeds, ground lotus seeds and sometimes a duck egg.

I went to Causeway Bay (Victoria Park) during the festival to watch the families all light their lanterns and watch the children lighting their candles.

Seventh Moon, Day 15 (in July/August)

For one long lunar month during the Hungry Ghost Festival, ghosts are said to roam the earth.

In some areas of Hong Kong, visitors can see small roadside fires, where believers burn paper money and other offerings to appease the restless spirits.

Local festivals feature Chinese opera. Popular venues are King George V Memorial Park in Kowloon and Moreton Terrace Playground in Causeway Bay.

If you find some unwanted coins scattered on the street, please don't try to pick them. They are for the 'Ox Head Horse Face" who patronizes the ghosts.

The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch will held the talk on Ghost Festival, please check:Calendar

Eighth Moon, Day 15 (in September/October)

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most charming and picturesque nights of the calendar.

The festival commemorates a 14th Century uprising against the Mongols. In a cunning plan, the rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes that they smuggled to compatriots.

Today, during the festival, people eat special sweet cakes known as "Moon Cakes" made of ground lotus and sesame seed paste, egg-yolk and other ingredients. Along with the cakes, shops sell coloured Chinese paper lanterns in the shapes of animals, and more recently, in the shapes of aeroplanes and space ships. On this family occasion, parents allow children to stay up late and take them to high vantage points such as The Peak to light their lanterns and watch the huge autumn moon rise while eating their moon cakes. Public parks are ablaze with many thousands of lanterns in all colours, sizes and shapes.

Also not to be missed is one of the most spectacular celebrations you'll ever see which takes place in Causeway Bay during the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 14th - 16th day of the eighth lunar month. It's the fire dragon dance in Tai Hang - a collection of streets located in behind the Causeway Bay recreation grounds and features a dragon measuring 66 metres.

Over a century ago, Tai Hang was a village whose inhabitants lived off of farming and fishing. A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival a typhoon and then a plague wreaked havoc on the village. While the villagers were repairing the damage, a python entered the village and ate their livestock. According to some villagers, the python was the son of the Dragon King. The only way to stop the havoc which had beset their village was to dance a fire dance for three days and nights during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. The villagers made a big fire dragon of straw and stuck incense into the dragon. They lit firecrackers. They danced for three days and three nights and the plague disappeared.

Fourth Moon, Day 8 (in April/May)

Enormous bamboo towers studded with sweet bun and effigies of three gods dominate the grounds near the Pak Tai Temple, where the main festivities take place. The festival that lasts for about a week climaxes with a large, colourful street procession, which features costumed children on stilts in a carnival atmosphere that winds its way through the streets.

One of the reputed origins of this popular festival, which attracts tourists by the tens of thousands each year, involves a plague on the island hundreds of years ago. Villagers disguised themselves as different deities and walked around the island to drive away the evil spirits responsible for the plague. Another story says the festival is part of an annual exorcism and fast.

In the past, the last event of this weeklong celebration was the climbing of the bun towers. Young people would scamper up the bamboo bun towers and grab as many buns as possible. The participants were so quick, that thousands of buns would be plucked from the bamboo frames in a manner of minutes. The buns would then be sold or distributed to those who did not join in the competition. This ritual was abandoned after one of the towers collapsed in 1978, but the bun towers are still set up around the Pak Tai Temple every year. Today, the buns are simply distributed at the end of the festival.

Fifth Moon, Day 5 (in June)

The Dragon Boat Festival combines a fast-paced sporting spectacular with a traditional festival.

The Festival, also known as Tuen Ng Festival, commemorates the death of a popular Chinese national hero, Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River over 2,000 years ago to protest against the corrupt rulers. Legend says that as townspeople attempted to rescue him, they beat drums to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body.

The real highlight of the festival is the fierce dragon boats racing in a lively, vibrant spectacle. Teams race the elaborately decorated dragon boats to the beat of heavy drums. The special boats, which measure more than 10 metres, have ornately carved and painted "dragon" heads and tails, and each carries a crew of 20-22 paddlers.

Participants train in earnest for the competition. Sitting two abreast, with a steersman at the back and a drummer at the front, the paddlers race to reach the finishing line, urged on by the pounding drums and the roar of the crowds.

Today, festival activities recall this legendary event. 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.

There is a beautiful story which goes along with the Lantern festival. I have only been told it once.. so I will probably mess it up in retelling. So.. rather than offend with my ignorance.. I will just say that it was quite an event. It seemed as if EVERYONE in Hong Kong as well as half of the mainland, was crowded into Victoria Park that night. I'm not used to crowds of this size and I had worn painful shoes.. but it was breathtaking.
The lanterns were like something out of a fairie tale. I was nervous with the immense crowd and the police had blocked most streets and exits. But I need not to have worried, everyone was very polite and courteous and was having a good time. There is no way that a crowd of that size could exist in the states without someone getting into a fight or pickpocketed.
Be sure to pick up some mooncakes from Maxims on your way and a sheet or something to sit on in the park.

Added to the colourful harbour in the festive night, there is a special fleet of vessels delighting the crowds immensely. These boats are traditional Chinese junks no longer on their past trades but now nicely lit up in their coloured prime, against the wonderful fireworks display in the harbour.

Crowds gather at the harbour front and podium of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre to view the beautiful night scene and watch the fireworks, under a nicely decorated walkway. Here the moon proudly makes her appearance up the eastern horizon, joining the jubilating crowds and the colourful harbour where tall buidings are also dressed up exquisitely.