Tin Hau Festival

23rd day of the 3rd Month of the Lunar Calendar

The most common temple in Hong Kong is the Tin Hau Temple. The most important deity festival is also the Tin Hau Festival. On the 23rd of the 3rd Lunar Month, many Tin Hau Temples organize celebratory activities. Besides incense offering and worshipping, in some districts bamboo-shed theatres are built for god-worshipping plays, or carnival parades are organized. The largest of these activities is organized at Shap Pat Heung of Yuen Long, with participants in the number of thousands. It is truly a festivity for both men and deity.

Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shu Ha

The Tin Gau Festival at Shap Pat Heung of Yuen Long comprises three events: god worshipping, parade and floral tribute lottery. On the eve of the festival, large numbers of believers come to the Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shu Ha to offer the first incense. Members of the floral tribute societies also arrive and give their best performances until mid-night. At 11pm on the eve of the festival, the village leaders and representatives of Shap Pak Heung of Yuen Long, together with floral tribute society representatives, enter the temple to pay homage to the gods. They also chant invocations in reverence of the deities.

Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shu Ha, which was built in the 18th century, is a cluster of 7 buildings. It has for a long time been the centre of community affairs, entertainment and education; it is also the most important Tin Hau Temple of Yuen Long. The carnival parade of the festival day ends at the temple, where the floral tribute lottery is also held.

Carnival Parade

The deity parade of Yuen Long was a newly emerged custom which began in 1963. Considering that serious traffic congestions were resulted from floral tribute societies bringing offerings to the Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shu Ha, the then District Officer of Yuen Long Sir David Jones conferred with the village leaders of Shap Pak Heung to arrange one parade for all floral tribute societies. This was the beginning of the Tin Hau Festival Parade. The parade attracted large numbers of on-lookers and became an noted annual event of Hong Kong.

In 2010, 4,000 participants in 30 teams join the parade, most from floral tribute societies. The parade began in Yuen Long at the minibus stop at Fung Cheung Road and the car park at Kin Tak Street, passes through Kau Yuk Road, and turns into Yuen Long stadium. The parade team stops to perform for the public in many locations. The performances include lion, dragon and kylin dance, Chiuchow dance, ethnic drum dance, and marching bands. Among them, Yuen Long Floral tribute society is rather unique in that they dress up young children of 4 or 5 years of age as farmers or farm ladies, in reminiscence of the rural life of the previous generations.

The tallest floral tribute in Hong Kong

After the performances, those who participate in the floral tribute lottery pass through Ma Tin Road and Tai Shu Ha Road East to arrive at the Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shu Ha. It is after two by the time the final team arrives. In Shap Pak Heung there are 30 floral tributes, at the centre of which is a Tin Hau Statue – a de facto palace of the deities. The floral tribute societies builds a new tribute each year for the temple, which will be redistributed on the festival day. The 3rd tribute, named “riches and plentiful offspring”, is considered the most auspicious and had the most auspicious decorations. It measures 20-feet in height and is the tallest of its kind in Hong Kong. All floral tribute societies hope to bring this floral tribute home.

Floral tribute lottery ceremony

In the past, a floral tribute scrambling was held to decide who gets which tribute, but the scramble often resulted in conflicts. In 1949, after the founding of the Shap Pat Heung Rural Committee, all village representatives agreed to turn to lottery for the distribution of floral tributes.

After all flower tribute societies arrive at the temple, the village leaders enter the temple and use the sacred palanquin to carry the statue of Tin Hau to a pavilion outside the temple. The District Officer and District Lands Officer of Yuen Long, and the Chief Superintendent of Police officiate the floral tribute lottery ceremony. They draw the names of 30 floral tribute societies from a total of several thousand tribute tickets, and the representative of each society in turn draws the number. The society that scores the 3rd tribute receives the highest applause.