The Origin of the Festival

It was in the reign of the Emperor Qianlong (1736–1795) that migrants from Guangdong, Huizhou and Chaozhou first began to develop settlements and rural markets on the narrow tombolo of Cheung Chau. The island quickly became an important fisheries centre on the outer rim of the Pearl River estuary, and the early settlers built several temples here, including those dedicated to Tin Hau and Hung Shing. Hailufeng migrants built the Pak Tai Temple in the 48th year of Qianlong’s reign (1783), and the Hui-Chiu Fu was founded soon afterwards as the earliest clansmen association on Cheung Chau. In the late 19th century, Hailufeng residents of Tai Ping Shan Street on Hong Kong Island organised a jiao festival — a religious ceremony to prevent calamities and misfortunes and to comfort departed souls — to show their gratitude to Pak Tai for ending a plague. Quickly established as an annual event, it was later moved to Pak She Street on Cheung Chau where many Hailufeng migrants had settled. As Cheung Chau developed socially and economically, migrants from Guangdong helped fund the renovation of the Pak Tai Temple in the early 20th century, going on to participate in religious ceremonies. The worship of Pak Tai by the people of Cheung Chau thus started with the early Hailufeng settlers, but was gradually extended to the Huizhou and Chaozhou clans and then the migrants from Guangdong until this deity became the patron god of the entire island. Involving every resident, the annual Jiao Festival honouring Pak Tai is the most important event on the island.