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Cheung Chau Bun Festival
(April/May)
There is only one bun
festival in all the world and it takes place once
a year on the tiny island of Cheung Chau. Enormous
bamboo towers studded with sweet buns and effigies
of three gods dominate the grounds near the Pak
Tai temple, where the main festivities take place.
The climax of the eight day festival is a large
procession. Children dressed in colourful and historic
costumes march, walk on stilts or ride on floats
through the island's tiny winding streets. |
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Tin
Hau Festival (April/May)
Tin Hau, the Goddess
of the Sea, has a special place in Hong Kong's
heart, thanks to the territory's maritime history.
For her birthday on the 23rd day of the third
month of the lunar calendar, the fishermen decorate
their boats and gather at her temples to pray
for good catches during the coming year. There
is always a big celebration at Joss House Bay,
with traditional rites at the temple, and tour
organizers arrange launch trips to view the celebrations.
In Yuen Long, in the New Territories, a parade
takes place with colourful floats and lion dances.
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Mid-Autumn
Festival (August/September)
This Chinese equivalent
to the West's Harvest Moon Festival is one of the
loveliest nights of the year. Part of the celebrations
commemorate a 14th-Century uprising against the
Mongols when rebels wrote the call to revolt on
pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes which
they smuggled to compatriots. |
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Today,
during the festival, people eat special sweet cakes
known as "Moon Cakes" made of ground lotus
and sesame. 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 before eating
their moon cakes. Public parks are ablaze with many
thousands of lanterns in all colours and sizes and
shapes. |
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Chinese New Year Parade
As part of Hong Kong's
most vibrant celebrations, the Chinese New Year
Parade is not to be missed. A cacophony of colour
and sound, tradition burst forth and brings in
the new year.
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Dragon
Boat ("Tuen Ng") Festival
TDragon Boat ("Tuen
Ng") Festival is held on the fifth day of the
fifth lunar month. It is one of Hong Kong's most
exciting festivals, featuring fierce dragon boats
racing in a lively, vibrant spectacle. |
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The
Festival commemorates the death of a popular Chinese
national hero Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the
Mi Lo River during the third century B.C., in protest
against a corrupt government. 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. |
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Today,
Festival activities recall this legendary event.
During the Festival period, 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. To symbolise attempts to rescue
Qu Yuan, the real highlight of the festival can
be seen when teams race 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 boat carries a crew of 20 - 22 paddlers.
Participants in the races 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. |
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