Festivals, Hong Kong

I recommend attending the Hong Kong International Comedy Festival between October 9-18, 2008. It will feature 20 comics from around the world, competing in both English and Cantonese competitions (not all the comics compete in both categories). It is sponsored by The TakeOut Comedy Club Hong Kong, the first fulltime comedy club in Asia.

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This festival takes place around May every year. Huge towers of buns are erected on Cheung Chau and last year they reintroduced the custom of climbing the towers! They're certainly impressive. On the actual day of the festival, young children dress up in wonderful costumes and are paraded through the streets of Cheung Chau - going from one temple to another. If you visit on the actual day, be prepared for crowds of people - go as early as you can to avoid the long queues for the ferries and remember to take water with you as you can easily get dehydrated.

There are some excellent seafood restaurants on Cheung Chau and you should try a bun!

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I bet you've seen lots of lion or dragon dance performances in various 'china towns' but I doubt if you've seen any with FIRE dragon. Yup, it's a fire dragon! As far as I know, it's quite a unique tradition for the residents to perform fire dragon dance at Mid-Autumn Festival in Tai Hang - a relatively old residential area between Tin Hau and Causeway Bay.

The Dragon is a long piece of rope, covered by hundreds of burning incense sticks. A team (not sure about the number) of muscular men, each holding a wooden stick supporting a certain part of the dragon, wandered along the streets in Tai Hang, waving the wooden sticks in their hands, leading to a lively dragon wandering in the district. It's a truly spectacular event.

The fire dragon dance is performed three times every year: the day before Mid-Autumn Festival, the day on Mid-Autumn and the day after. It normally starts at 8:30p.m. and finishes at about 10:30p.m.. Despite the crowds and the heat, it definitely worths standing there for so long (yeah, including the waiting time before the event in order to secure a good viewing position).

So next time if you're in HK for the Mid-Autumn Festival, apart from going to the Victoria Park, you know where to go.

The festival has its origin in Chinese folklore dating back more than 1,500 years. The legend, features a weaver maid (with six older sisters), who led a lonely life working at her loom throughout the year. Her father, the Heavenly Emperor, felt sorry for her and allowed her to marry a cowherder from across the Milky Way.

After the wedding, she neglected her weaving duties and the Emperor ordered her to return home and visit her husband only once a year - on the seventh day of the seventh moon.

We planned our trip to Hong Kong to include the Cheung Chau Bun Festival on the small island. We caught a ferry from the central pier no5 and travelled with the masses on the 45 min slow ferry. On arriving on the island you follow the crowds to the centre of the festival. The next festival is on the 5th May 2006. Huge towers made of sweet buns in the main square and walk along the narrow streets where the children are made up and the processions are prepared. Buy a bun for good fortune and join in. Get there for about 1130am as it gets very crowded. The procession starts at 2pm and lasts 2 hours. Amazing, colourful, breathtaking experience of a chinese festival -essential experience of hong kong! unforgettable!!! see the hong kong tourist board website for more info or the cheung chau website itself. its better to do the festival yourself rather than the very expensive tourist tours.

I didn't think that Christmas and the Western New Year were really celebrated in Hong Kong, so wasn't expecting it to look much different ffrom previous visits. How wrong can you get! Streets and buildings were decked in Christmas lights, with "Merry Christmas" beaming out across Victoria Harbour and everywhere we went we heard Christmas carols playing and Christmas trees and Santas all over the place.

This is a stall set up on the promenade at Tsim Sha Tsui where you could get a wax model made of your hand inter-linked with your loved one's. Seemed like it was a true test of love, because the hot wax made the girl in the photo squeal out loud.

If you're travelling between the chinese new year, spent a lot af time at the habour area. You'll find a lot of surprises - the chinese new year festival is more then only a firework!

We saw this nice lightshow at the 3rd day, it was a festival with a story (chinese, i didn't understand it), music and a super-lightshow

I went to the Tin Hau festival which is held in April or May.

The festival is a homage to the goddess of the sea. Thousands of people arrive by brightly decorated boats to give offerings of incense and food at the Tin Hau temple. Lion dancing and firecrackers were present all over the crowded island. The boat for this festival left Hong Kong and went to Joss House Bay, home to Hong Kong's odest Tin Hau Temple.

During the festival there are special ferries that run from Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Worth the minimal price to avoid major hassle. I booked my seat through Watertours of Hong Kong Limited, 1018 Star House, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. For $250HKDollars (in 1997), I was provided with return transportation on a motorized junk from Kowloon to Joss House Bay and some limited refreshments and commentary in English.