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International and modern as it may be, Hong Kong has never lost touch with its traditions. With so many traditional Chinese festivals taking place throughout the year, you too can get a taste of the city’s customs whenever you visit. This is how fun-loving locals keep their heritage alive.
Chinese New Year
The first 15 days of the first lunar month
For the ultimate winter celebration, pop by Hong Kong for Chinese New Year as the city celebrates its most important festival in addition to the Birthday of Che Kung and the vivid Spring Lantern Festival. During Chinese New Year, you will see children and adults dressed head to toe in all shades of red, greeting everyone from their neighbours to shopkeepers with auspicious wishes. Shrouded in an air of excitement, the streets are decked out in gold lanterns and motifs of the animal of the year, and markets are filled to the brim with auspicious food.
Hung Shing Festival
The 13th day of the second lunar month
Spring brings a series of birthday celebrations for the beloved deities worshipped by generations of Hong Kong people, led by Hung Shing Festival.
Like many of the gods worshipped in Hong Kong, Hung Shing was a historical figure who was later deified. The man behind the immortal was Hung Hei, who served as governor of Panyu in Guangdong province during the Tang dynasty (618–907). A respected astronomer and geographer who helped forecast the weather for fishermen and merchants, Hung Shing Festival is marked in Hong Kong mostly by fishermen. Celebrations include Chinese opera, processions and more, taking place at the 800-year-old village of Ho Sheung Heung in the New Territories and the more than 240-year-old Hung Shing Temple at Ap Lei Chau
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Birthday of Tin Hau
The 23rd day of the third lunar month
Hong Kong’s maritime heritage ensures that Tin Hau, Goddess of the Sea and patron saint of fishermen, has a strong and loyal following here. On her birthday, locals flock to the more than 70 Tin Hau temples in the city to pray for safety, security, fine weather and full fishing nets during the coming year. So enduring is the reverence for Tin Hau that this festival is even celebrated by many young people who are more likely to see a fish in a restaurant than on a trawler. Check out the three-hour parade in Yuen Long and festivities at Tin Hau Temple in Joss House Bay, the oldest of its kind in Hong Kong.
Image by So Shing Yan
Birthday of Buddha
The eighth day of the fourth lunar month
One of the most spiritual and unique festivals in Hong Kong is the Birthday of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, also known as Sakyamuni), which is also called the Buddha Bathing Festival.
According to legend, nine dragons sprayed water to bathe the baby Buddha at birth. Thus, on his birthday, devotees gather at Buddhist temples to bathe statues of him, in a ritual that is believed to aid in the purification of one’s soul. Every year, Buddhist temples and organisations in Hong Kong hold a series of ceremonies, including the Buddha Bathing Ceremony held at the Po Lin Monastery
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Before and after the Birthday of Buddha, celebrants also eat bitter, green cookies, a custom that represents passing through hardship to enjoy better things.
Birthday of Tam Kung
The eighth day of the fourth lunar month
Tam Kung is revered amongst fishermen and coastal communities, and worshipped uniquely in Hong Kong. Born in Huizhou prefecture in Guangdong province during the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), Tam Kung was said to be capable of forecasting the weather and healing the ill when he was a child. He is usually portrayed as an 80-year-old man with the face of a 12-year-old child as he is believed to have achieved wisdom at a young age and learnt the secret of remaining forever young.
Catch the lion dances and a street parade at the oldest and most celebrated Tam Kung Temple
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Cheung Chau Bun Festival
The fifth to ninth of the fourth lunar month
One of the city’s most spectacular festivals marks the end of spring, when thousands of visitors ferry over to the tiny, serene island for the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. Comprising the piu sik parade with children dressed up as deities paraded on stilts, lion dances, Taoist festivals and the exciting Bun Scrambling Competition, the festivities are on China’s national list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. From the buns to the bun towers, everything is prepared by the local community, so this is truly a unique Hong Kong festival.
Dragon Boat Festival
The fifth day of the fifth lunar month
Summer in Hong Kong kicks off with the Dragon Boat Festival. Celebrated all over China, the festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a Chinese national hero who drowned himself in protest against corrupt rulers. The Hong Kong version has the added benefit of being set against the beautiful Victoria Harbour skyline, as colourful dragon boats slice through the harbour in a race between international paddlers. Don’t miss the picturesque Dragon Boat Water Parade of Tai O, where deity statues are put on sacred sampans and towed by the dragon boats in a parade through the waters of Tai O to pacify the wandering water ghosts.
Hungry Ghost Festival
The 15th day of the seventh lunar month
According to traditional Chinese belief, the seventh month in the lunar calendar is when restless spirits roam the earth and the living celebrate Yu Lan or the Hungry Ghost Festival. While the festival’s origins are not unlike those of Halloween in Europe, it is also intrinsically linked to the Chinese practice of ancestor worship. A celebration of the culture, the Hong Kong Chiu Chow Community’s Yu Lan Ghost Festival is on China’s national list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. For visitors, it’s a perfect opportunity to see some of the city’s living culture in action, with many people tending roadside fires and burning faux money and other offerings for ghosts and ancestors to use in the afterlife. Food is also left out to sate the appetite of the hungry ghosts. There will also be Chinese opera performances around town, usually held on temporary bamboo stages, to praise the charitable and pious deeds of the deities.
Mid-Autumn Festival
The 15th day of the eighth lunar month
As the round shape symbolises unity in Chinese culture, the full moon marks the perfect time for families to get together, which is how Mid-Autumn Festival has been celebrated since the early Tang dynasty (618–907). To many, this is considered to be one of the most important festivals of the year. Highly urbanised Hong Kong still celebrates this holiday and does so in style, with a vast variety of mooncakes made with everything from salted egg yolk to ice cream. For those looking for a visual extravaganza, head to Tai Hang for the spectacular fire dragon dance, and keep an eye out for lantern displays around the city.
