History of Spring and Autumn Ancestral Worship of Clans in Hong Kong

By the Song and Yuan dynasties (960 - 1368), many Chinese people had moved from the mainland to Hong Kong. They belonged to different clans known by their surnames as Tang, Man, Liu, Hau, Pang and To in the New Territories, and the clan of Lam in Chuk Yuen of Kowloon. Over the centuries, these clans made Hong Kong their home, built ancestral halls and graveyards, and carried on with the tradition of ancestral worship.

The ancestral worship activities of large clans during spring and autumn are of such a scale that they often attract public attention and media reporting. For example, The Kung Sheung Daily News reported in 1952 the lively scene of Autumn Ancestral Worship of the Man clan in San Tin at their graveyard in Castle Peak, with over 2000 clansmen participating. The descriptions in the report, including the offering of the sumptuous sacrifices of food and the hosting of the ceremonies by elders in the clan, show that the practices of ancestral worship carried down to this day are similar to those in the past.