Local Festivals Around the Year
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Local Festivals Around the Year
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4th Lunar Month

The Buddha’s Birthday
Tam Kung Festival
Cheung Chau Bun Festival

8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


The Cheung Chau Bun Festival – also known as Tai Ping Ching Chiu, or Da Jiu – is organized for three days every year. In the past, the days were designated through divination, and thus varies year-to-year. The divination results in 2000 was the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. Because that day was The Buddha’s Birthday Public Holiday, large numbers of visitors attended the parade-in-the-air. In the following year, as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival Committee carried out the divination rituals, they conveyed to Pak Tei – the deity of the North – their wish to fix the date of Da Jiu on the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The divination results returned a positive reply. The date of Da Jiu has since been fixed.

The origin of Da Jiu


Da Jiu of Cheung Chau was originally named “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian Tai Ping Ching Chiu”. The “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian” was Pak Tai, the deity of the North and the most important deity of Cheung Chau. Folklore has it that 200 years ago, the island suffered from a pandemic which killed many. The local folks prayed to Pak Tai for deliverance from the calamity, and was given the hint that a Taoist Priest of Hoi Luk Fung should be hired to set an altar to assuage the wandering spirits and seek blessings of peace. The ceremony became the yearly Tai Ping Ching Chiu. In the beginning there were only god-worshipping and spirit-assuaging rituals, but later parade-in-the-air, god-worshipping plays and Bun Scrambling events were added which attracted large numbers of visitors. Today, the festival is a major event of Hong Kong and is listed as one of the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage items.

Worship activities


On the eve of the Da Jiu, the residents go to the Yuk Hui Temple (also known as Pak Tai Temple) and other temples on the island to summon the deities to the temporary shrine built at the Pak Tai Square, so that believers can pay their homage at the location. At 11 pm of the 7th of the 4th Lunar month, the altar rituals commence and the entire island enters a period of abstinence. In the 3-day Da Jiu, the Taoist priest conducts various rituals including presenting offerings, repentance, appeasing the spirits, and thanking the heavens. It is a ceremony of rich local colour.

 

Lay-out of the Da Jiu arena


Besides the shrine, the bamboo-shed theatre, and the Taoist priest shed, 3 large bun mountains and several dozens of small bun mountains are built to assuage the spirits. 3 5-metre tall paper statues are erected beside the mountains, including the King of Ghosts – believed to be the incarnate of Kwun Yam Bodhisattva – whose duty is to “oversee wandering spirits so that they accept the offerings in an orderly manner”. The other two status are the God of Earth and the God of Mountains. The God of Earth has ingots in hand and is the master of all treasures of the earth; the God of Mountains bears a flag that commands wind, rain and thunder. The residents hope to bring good weather and prosperity to Cheung Chau through worshipping these deities.



   


   

Carnival Parade


The climax of the festivities is the parade-in-the-air held at 2pm on the 8th of the 4th Lunar month. Various groups and local communities dispatch parade-in-the-air, dancing lion and kylin teams, marching bands with Chiuchow gong and drums in over a dozen groups to parade in the major streets of the city centre, and onlookers enjoy the parade from both sides of the street. The designs of the parade-in-the-air are different every year, with characters taken from folk stories or caricatured impersonations of well-known modern characters. Those who performed extraordinarily receive high media exposure.


The parade team is led by the various deities at different temples in Cheung Chau. Each statue is placed in their own palanquins and is carried by numerous bearers. As they arrive at the last legs of the road leading up to the shrine, the bearers pick up speed to deliver the statue to the shrine in a jog. It is named “the Bodhisattva run”. In the past the fastest group to arrive at the shrine would be considered to receive the best luck, but after numerous fights over the first place the rules were changed to returning to the shrine in designated order.

   

Spirit assuaging ceremony


After the end of the parade, the visitors begin to leave but the residents taking part in Da Jiu begin their busy preparations for the climax of the festival. They will move the King of Ghosts to an open space beside the shore, and place 36 tables of vegetarian banquet in front for the feasting of the wandering spirits. The Taoist Priests chant invocations to assuage the spirits and the residents come to give offerings. At around 11 pm, the King of Ghosts is cremated with the implication that it will bring the wandering ghosts as it leaves the world of men, leaving the community in peace. The 3-day Da Jiu comes to an end, and the period of abstinence ends.


Bun Scrambling


After cremating the King of Ghosts, the Bun Scrambling began at 12 mid-night. In the past all residents of island could scramble for the buns – the more they got the greater the fortune. But since the collapse of the bun mountain in 1978, the activity was banned and the buns are now distributed to the residents on the following day. In 2005, with the help of the Civil Affairs Bureau, the Bun Scrambling activity was revived though in a different form. It becomes a sports activity of some entertainment value; the real buns are also replaced by props and the participants are not limited to residents of Cheung Chau. All those who reach a certain level of skill may compete.


8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


Tam Kung Festival is on the same day as the Buddha’s birthday, and enjoys the benefit of a public holiday which on one hand allows believers to bring incense to the Tam Kung Temple, and on the other draws the public to the Tam Kung Festival Parade at Shau Kei Wan. Shau Kei Wan Main Street East, busy on an ordinary day, is positively packed on the morning of the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The lion and dragon dance teams march towards the Tam Kung Temple by the harbour front, dancing and sounding gongs and drums to the cheers of the onlookers.

Tam Kung in person    


Who is Tam Kung? There are different versions of the folklore. According to the Chinese Temples Committee, Tam Kung is originally named Tam Qiao, and was born in Guishan of Huidong County in Yuan Dynasty(presently Huizhou County of Guangdong). He gained passage to the heavenly way at the age of 12, and possessed the power to call wind and rain and heal the sick, and was thus revered as a deity. His power to predict the weather won him the trust of the fisherfolk. In the past, Sau Kei Wan was a fisherfolk community, and the stonecutters from Hui and Chiu Counties also came here to quarry stone; the Tam Kung Temple built in 1905 was the place where they paid their homage.

Festivities


The past Tam Kung Festivals at Sau Kei Wan featured opera and floral tribute scrambling activities. The residents organized a deity parade in 1961 during the cholera outbreak, but the festivities have diminished since. In the mid-1990s the festival saw a revival, helped along by the public holiday of Buddha’s Birthday, which allowed a growing number of the public to join the festivities. The organizers come up with new activities every year featuring different performing organizations hoping to elicit public interest and bring thriving business to the eateries in the district.

The Tam Kung Festival Parade has evolved into the largest festivity of Sau Kei Wan District. The parade is overseen by two organizers which begin their parades near Shing Wong Temple at different hours, each bearing unique features. In 2003, parade-in-the-air elements were added; in 2006 boys impersonating Tam Kung joined the parade; 2007’s parade featured artistic roller skating performances, which incorporated western elements into the Chinese festival. In 2010, on the eve of the Tam Kung Festival, the organizers organized the first “Parade on the Water” and revived the god-worshipping plays, and drove the festivities to a new height.

Martial arts showcase


Every festival parade is an opportunity for martial arts or lion dance societies to showcase their specialties. They dispatch dancing lions, kylins, golden dragons and auspicious beasts to pray for the blessings of deities and to demonstrate their capabilities to the district and other societies. It was a martial arts showcase with different schools of marital arts coming together at one place.


In the Tam Kung Festival Parade, one sees certain martial arts societies performing their specialties including double or even triple shoulder stand, and lion dancing on top of a bamboo pole. Some groups even dispatch disciples to perform kung-fu or spar using weapons, turning the religious parade into a martial arts carnival.

   

Performance by auspicious beasts    


In the parade one also sees all manners of auspicious beasts. There are numerous types of southern lions, for example the red-and-black “General Kwan” lion, the black-and-white “General Zhangfei” lion, the Hakka kylin, the Hoklo golden lion, and the Nixiu. The same auspicious beast gains different interpretations between different ethnic groups and schools, and demonstrates the uniqueness of the martial arts of a region. As two auspicious beasts encounter, they meet up in a traditional ritual that involves bodily contact and mutual salutation.

An abundance of believers


Some believers also carry their own Tam Kung shrine or large floral tributes as they offer incense at the Tam Kung Temple. They take part in the event in solemn devotion. As one enters the temple, the smoke was pervasive and many queue up to sound the drum immediately after the incense offering to alert the deities.


Sau Kei Wan is a traditional community. Each year many festivities, including numerous Yu Lan Ghost Festivals, are held here. Unlike rural villages, these district festivities are not subsidized or organized by rural committees or village offices, and all funding and arrangements depend on district individuals. Even then, the festivities are colourful and popular, allowing the folk tradition to live on.

 

 

           

    

       

8th of the 4th Month of the Lunar Calendar


Before Hong Kong’s handover to China, few would know which day the Buddha’s birthday is. But after the extensive lobbying by Buddhist organizations, the legislative council passed a legislation after the handover to designate the 8th of 4th Lunar month as a public holiday beginning from 1999. It was the only traditional Chinese religious holiday in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Buddhist Association and other Buddhist organizations organize a series of celebratory events every year around the time of the Buddha’s Birthday, including “bathing the Buddha”, seminars and performances, and ceremonies of mass conversion to Buddhism.

Buddha Bathing Festival


The main rite of the Buddha’s birthday is the bathing of the Buddha. Water is poured over the Buddha’s statue, which is usually a small statue of a top-naked prince assuming a position of “one hand touching the earth and one hand pointing towards the heaven”. According to Buddhist sutras, when Prince Siddh?rtha Gautama of the ancient Indian nation of Kapilavast was born 2,600 years ago, one of his hand touched the earth and another pointed towards the heaven. He walked 7 steps in four directions with one lotus flower blooming in each step he treaded, and intoned, “"Supreme am I in the world, Greatest am I in the world”. Prince Siddh?rtha later became the Buddha (meaning the enlightened one), and was given the revered title of “Sakyamuni”, meaning the saint of the Sakyas. As the prince was born the king of dragons gave him a bath with a shower of water, and this is the origin of the Buddha Bathing Festival.

   

The date of Buddha’s Birthday


When was the Buddha born? Different factions tell different stories. In 1950, a group of Buddhist leaders from Europe, America, and Asia gathered in Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to found The World Fellowship of Buddhists. They discussed the mission and responsibilities of the Buddhists and agreed upon the date of Buddha’s birthday. According to the results of their discussion, the Buddha was born in 623 B.C.E., achieved enlightenment in 588 B.C.E., lived for 80 years in our world and arrived at nirvana in 543 B.C.E. The Buddhist calendar began from when the Buddha arrived at nirvana, with the addition of one year upon each Buddha’s Birthday. 2010 was year 2554 of the Buddhist Calendar.

However, Buddhists remain divided over the birthday of the Buddha. Chinese Buddhism (including China, Taiwan and Macau) took the 8th of the 4th lunar month as the Buddha’s Birthday, and Korea followed suit. South Asian nations including Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and some regions of India adopted the day of the full-moon in the 5th Lunar Month as the Vesak – the Buddha veneration festival. They also celebrate celebrates the birth, enlightenment and nirvana of the Buddha on this day.

The significance of the bathing


Buddhist monasteries of larger scales in Hong Kong held public Buddha bathing ceremonies on 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Shatin, for example, received large crowds of believers through the day. In the morning, the monks conduct an assembly and chant sutras at the Main Temple Building. Later, led by a senior monk, believers queue outside Pagoda to bath the Buddha statue using a water scoop. Buddhists believe that besides commemorating the birth of the Buddha, the bathing ceremony also cleanses the filth in a person’s heart, i.e. greed, anger and delusion. Through cleansing and reflecting on one’s ails, one achieves the purpose of eliminating vexations.


The celebration of Buddha’s Birthday in Hong Kong also carries folk colour. The volunteers of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery distribute white rice donated by charitable individuals on Buddha’s Birthday in front of the Main Temple Building. They place white rice and peanuts (the fruit of longevity) in red packets which are distributed to all who come to worship the Buddha. The packet is called the “rice of wellbeing”.

   

Therevada Buddhism


Buddhists of the Therevada Buddhist sect in Hong Kong, in particular Thai domestic workers, celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday on the day of the full-moon in the 5th Lunar Month. On the Sunday closest to the Buddha’s Birthday, they bring food and gifts to the Thai Buddhist Monastery at Tai Wo, Tai Po to offer to the monks living in the temple, to accumulate beneficence for themselves. They will eat before a large Buddha statue in the temple and listen to the monks telling the accomplishments of the Buddha, followed by sutra chanting. Later, flower and incense in hand, they follow the monks and circle the Buddha statue three times in solemn silence.


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8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


The Cheung Chau Bun Festival – also known as Tai Ping Ching Chiu, or Da Jiu – is organized for three days every year. In the past, the days were designated through divination, and thus varies year-to-year. The divination results in 2000 was the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. Because that day was The Buddha’s Birthday Public Holiday, large numbers of visitors attended the parade-in-the-air. In the following year, as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival Committee carried out the divination rituals, they conveyed to Pak Tei – the deity of the North – their wish to fix the date of Da Jiu on the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The divination results returned a positive reply. The date of Da Jiu has since been fixed.

The origin of Da Jiu


Da Jiu of Cheung Chau was originally named “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian Tai Ping Ching Chiu”. The “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian” was Pak Tai, the deity of the North and the most important deity of Cheung Chau. Folklore has it that 200 years ago, the island suffered from a pandemic which killed many. The local folks prayed to Pak Tai for deliverance from the calamity, and was given the hint that a Taoist Priest of Hoi Luk Fung should be hired to set an altar to assuage the wandering spirits and seek blessings of peace. The ceremony became the yearly Tai Ping Ching Chiu. In the beginning there were only god-worshipping and spirit-assuaging rituals, but later parade-in-the-air, god-worshipping plays and Bun Scrambling events were added which attracted large numbers of visitors. Today, the festival is a major event of Hong Kong and is listed as one of the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage items.

Worship activities


On the eve of the Da Jiu, the residents go to the Yuk Hui Temple (also known as Pak Tai Temple) and other temples on the island to summon the deities to the temporary shrine built at the Pak Tai Square, so that believers can pay their homage at the location. At 11 pm of the 7th of the 4th Lunar month, the altar rituals commence and the entire island enters a period of abstinence. In the 3-day Da Jiu, the Taoist priest conducts various rituals including presenting offerings, repentance, appeasing the spirits, and thanking the heavens. It is a ceremony of rich local colour.

 

Lay-out of the Da Jiu arena


Besides the shrine, the bamboo-shed theatre, and the Taoist priest shed, 3 large bun mountains and several dozens of small bun mountains are built to assuage the spirits. 3 5-metre tall paper statues are erected beside the mountains, including the King of Ghosts – believed to be the incarnate of Kwun Yam Bodhisattva – whose duty is to “oversee wandering spirits so that they accept the offerings in an orderly manner”. The other two status are the God of Earth and the God of Mountains. The God of Earth has ingots in hand and is the master of all treasures of the earth; the God of Mountains bears a flag that commands wind, rain and thunder. The residents hope to bring good weather and prosperity to Cheung Chau through worshipping these deities.



   


   

Carnival Parade


The climax of the festivities is the parade-in-the-air held at 2pm on the 8th of the 4th Lunar month. Various groups and local communities dispatch parade-in-the-air, dancing lion and kylin teams, marching bands with Chiuchow gong and drums in over a dozen groups to parade in the major streets of the city centre, and onlookers enjoy the parade from both sides of the street. The designs of the parade-in-the-air are different every year, with characters taken from folk stories or caricatured impersonations of well-known modern characters. Those who performed extraordinarily receive high media exposure.


The parade team is led by the various deities at different temples in Cheung Chau. Each statue is placed in their own palanquins and is carried by numerous bearers. As they arrive at the last legs of the road leading up to the shrine, the bearers pick up speed to deliver the statue to the shrine in a jog. It is named “the Bodhisattva run”. In the past the fastest group to arrive at the shrine would be considered to receive the best luck, but after numerous fights over the first place the rules were changed to returning to the shrine in designated order.

   

Spirit assuaging ceremony


After the end of the parade, the visitors begin to leave but the residents taking part in Da Jiu begin their busy preparations for the climax of the festival. They will move the King of Ghosts to an open space beside the shore, and place 36 tables of vegetarian banquet in front for the feasting of the wandering spirits. The Taoist Priests chant invocations to assuage the spirits and the residents come to give offerings. At around 11 pm, the King of Ghosts is cremated with the implication that it will bring the wandering ghosts as it leaves the world of men, leaving the community in peace. The 3-day Da Jiu comes to an end, and the period of abstinence ends.


Bun Scrambling


After cremating the King of Ghosts, the Bun Scrambling began at 12 mid-night. In the past all residents of island could scramble for the buns – the more they got the greater the fortune. But since the collapse of the bun mountain in 1978, the activity was banned and the buns are now distributed to the residents on the following day. In 2005, with the help of the Civil Affairs Bureau, the Bun Scrambling activity was revived though in a different form. It becomes a sports activity of some entertainment value; the real buns are also replaced by props and the participants are not limited to residents of Cheung Chau. All those who reach a certain level of skill may compete.


8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


Tam Kung Festival is on the same day as the Buddha’s birthday, and enjoys the benefit of a public holiday which on one hand allows believers to bring incense to the Tam Kung Temple, and on the other draws the public to the Tam Kung Festival Parade at Shau Kei Wan. Shau Kei Wan Main Street East, busy on an ordinary day, is positively packed on the morning of the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The lion and dragon dance teams march towards the Tam Kung Temple by the harbour front, dancing and sounding gongs and drums to the cheers of the onlookers.

Tam Kung in person    


Who is Tam Kung? There are different versions of the folklore. According to the Chinese Temples Committee, Tam Kung is originally named Tam Qiao, and was born in Guishan of Huidong County in Yuan Dynasty(presently Huizhou County of Guangdong). He gained passage to the heavenly way at the age of 12, and possessed the power to call wind and rain and heal the sick, and was thus revered as a deity. His power to predict the weather won him the trust of the fisherfolk. In the past, Sau Kei Wan was a fisherfolk community, and the stonecutters from Hui and Chiu Counties also came here to quarry stone; the Tam Kung Temple built in 1905 was the place where they paid their homage.

Festivities


The past Tam Kung Festivals at Sau Kei Wan featured opera and floral tribute scrambling activities. The residents organized a deity parade in 1961 during the cholera outbreak, but the festivities have diminished since. In the mid-1990s the festival saw a revival, helped along by the public holiday of Buddha’s Birthday, which allowed a growing number of the public to join the festivities. The organizers come up with new activities every year featuring different performing organizations hoping to elicit public interest and bring thriving business to the eateries in the district.

The Tam Kung Festival Parade has evolved into the largest festivity of Sau Kei Wan District. The parade is overseen by two organizers which begin their parades near Shing Wong Temple at different hours, each bearing unique features. In 2003, parade-in-the-air elements were added; in 2006 boys impersonating Tam Kung joined the parade; 2007’s parade featured artistic roller skating performances, which incorporated western elements into the Chinese festival. In 2010, on the eve of the Tam Kung Festival, the organizers organized the first “Parade on the Water” and revived the god-worshipping plays, and drove the festivities to a new height.

Martial arts showcase


Every festival parade is an opportunity for martial arts or lion dance societies to showcase their specialties. They dispatch dancing lions, kylins, golden dragons and auspicious beasts to pray for the blessings of deities and to demonstrate their capabilities to the district and other societies. It was a martial arts showcase with different schools of marital arts coming together at one place.


In the Tam Kung Festival Parade, one sees certain martial arts societies performing their specialties including double or even triple shoulder stand, and lion dancing on top of a bamboo pole. Some groups even dispatch disciples to perform kung-fu or spar using weapons, turning the religious parade into a martial arts carnival.

   

Performance by auspicious beasts    


In the parade one also sees all manners of auspicious beasts. There are numerous types of southern lions, for example the red-and-black “General Kwan” lion, the black-and-white “General Zhangfei” lion, the Hakka kylin, the Hoklo golden lion, and the Nixiu. The same auspicious beast gains different interpretations between different ethnic groups and schools, and demonstrates the uniqueness of the martial arts of a region. As two auspicious beasts encounter, they meet up in a traditional ritual that involves bodily contact and mutual salutation.

An abundance of believers


Some believers also carry their own Tam Kung shrine or large floral tributes as they offer incense at the Tam Kung Temple. They take part in the event in solemn devotion. As one enters the temple, the smoke was pervasive and many queue up to sound the drum immediately after the incense offering to alert the deities.


Sau Kei Wan is a traditional community. Each year many festivities, including numerous Yu Lan Ghost Festivals, are held here. Unlike rural villages, these district festivities are not subsidized or organized by rural committees or village offices, and all funding and arrangements depend on district individuals. Even then, the festivities are colourful and popular, allowing the folk tradition to live on.

 

 

           

    

       

8th of the 4th Month of the Lunar Calendar


Before Hong Kong’s handover to China, few would know which day the Buddha’s birthday is. But after the extensive lobbying by Buddhist organizations, the legislative council passed a legislation after the handover to designate the 8th of 4th Lunar month as a public holiday beginning from 1999. It was the only traditional Chinese religious holiday in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Buddhist Association and other Buddhist organizations organize a series of celebratory events every year around the time of the Buddha’s Birthday, including “bathing the Buddha”, seminars and performances, and ceremonies of mass conversion to Buddhism.

Buddha Bathing Festival


The main rite of the Buddha’s birthday is the bathing of the Buddha. Water is poured over the Buddha’s statue, which is usually a small statue of a top-naked prince assuming a position of “one hand touching the earth and one hand pointing towards the heaven”. According to Buddhist sutras, when Prince Siddh?rtha Gautama of the ancient Indian nation of Kapilavast was born 2,600 years ago, one of his hand touched the earth and another pointed towards the heaven. He walked 7 steps in four directions with one lotus flower blooming in each step he treaded, and intoned, “"Supreme am I in the world, Greatest am I in the world”. Prince Siddh?rtha later became the Buddha (meaning the enlightened one), and was given the revered title of “Sakyamuni”, meaning the saint of the Sakyas. As the prince was born the king of dragons gave him a bath with a shower of water, and this is the origin of the Buddha Bathing Festival.

   

The date of Buddha’s Birthday


When was the Buddha born? Different factions tell different stories. In 1950, a group of Buddhist leaders from Europe, America, and Asia gathered in Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to found The World Fellowship of Buddhists. They discussed the mission and responsibilities of the Buddhists and agreed upon the date of Buddha’s birthday. According to the results of their discussion, the Buddha was born in 623 B.C.E., achieved enlightenment in 588 B.C.E., lived for 80 years in our world and arrived at nirvana in 543 B.C.E. The Buddhist calendar began from when the Buddha arrived at nirvana, with the addition of one year upon each Buddha’s Birthday. 2010 was year 2554 of the Buddhist Calendar.

However, Buddhists remain divided over the birthday of the Buddha. Chinese Buddhism (including China, Taiwan and Macau) took the 8th of the 4th lunar month as the Buddha’s Birthday, and Korea followed suit. South Asian nations including Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and some regions of India adopted the day of the full-moon in the 5th Lunar Month as the Vesak – the Buddha veneration festival. They also celebrate celebrates the birth, enlightenment and nirvana of the Buddha on this day.

The significance of the bathing


Buddhist monasteries of larger scales in Hong Kong held public Buddha bathing ceremonies on 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Shatin, for example, received large crowds of believers through the day. In the morning, the monks conduct an assembly and chant sutras at the Main Temple Building. Later, led by a senior monk, believers queue outside Pagoda to bath the Buddha statue using a water scoop. Buddhists believe that besides commemorating the birth of the Buddha, the bathing ceremony also cleanses the filth in a person’s heart, i.e. greed, anger and delusion. Through cleansing and reflecting on one’s ails, one achieves the purpose of eliminating vexations.


The celebration of Buddha’s Birthday in Hong Kong also carries folk colour. The volunteers of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery distribute white rice donated by charitable individuals on Buddha’s Birthday in front of the Main Temple Building. They place white rice and peanuts (the fruit of longevity) in red packets which are distributed to all who come to worship the Buddha. The packet is called the “rice of wellbeing”.

   

Therevada Buddhism


Buddhists of the Therevada Buddhist sect in Hong Kong, in particular Thai domestic workers, celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday on the day of the full-moon in the 5th Lunar Month. On the Sunday closest to the Buddha’s Birthday, they bring food and gifts to the Thai Buddhist Monastery at Tai Wo, Tai Po to offer to the monks living in the temple, to accumulate beneficence for themselves. They will eat before a large Buddha statue in the temple and listen to the monks telling the accomplishments of the Buddha, followed by sutra chanting. Later, flower and incense in hand, they follow the monks and circle the Buddha statue three times in solemn silence.


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4th Lunar Month

The Buddha’s Birthday
Tam Kung Festival
Cheung Chau Bun Festival

8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


The Cheung Chau Bun Festival – also known as Tai Ping Ching Chiu, or Da Jiu – is organized for three days every year. In the past, the days were designated through divination, and thus varies year-to-year. The divination results in 2000 was the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. Because that day was The Buddha’s Birthday Public Holiday, large numbers of visitors attended the parade-in-the-air. In the following year, as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival Committee carried out the divination rituals, they conveyed to Pak Tei – the deity of the North – their wish to fix the date of Da Jiu on the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The divination results returned a positive reply. The date of Da Jiu has since been fixed.

The origin of Da Jiu


Da Jiu of Cheung Chau was originally named “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian Tai Ping Ching Chiu”. The “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian” was Pak Tai, the deity of the North and the most important deity of Cheung Chau. Folklore has it that 200 years ago, the island suffered from a pandemic which killed many. The local folks prayed to Pak Tai for deliverance from the calamity, and was given the hint that a Taoist Priest of Hoi Luk Fung should be hired to set an altar to assuage the wandering spirits and seek blessings of peace. The ceremony became the yearly Tai Ping Ching Chiu. In the beginning there were only god-worshipping and spirit-assuaging rituals, but later parade-in-the-air, god-worshipping plays and Bun Scrambling events were added which attracted large numbers of visitors. Today, the festival is a major event of Hong Kong and is listed as one of the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage items.

Worship activities


On the eve of the Da Jiu, the residents go to the Yuk Hui Temple (also known as Pak Tai Temple) and other temples on the island to summon the deities to the temporary shrine built at the Pak Tai Square, so that believers can pay their homage at the location. At 11 pm of the 7th of the 4th Lunar month, the altar rituals commence and the entire island enters a period of abstinence. In the 3-day Da Jiu, the Taoist priest conducts various rituals including presenting offerings, repentance, appeasing the spirits, and thanking the heavens. It is a ceremony of rich local colour.

 

Lay-out of the Da Jiu arena


Besides the shrine, the bamboo-shed theatre, and the Taoist priest shed, 3 large bun mountains and several dozens of small bun mountains are built to assuage the spirits. 3 5-metre tall paper statues are erected beside the mountains, including the King of Ghosts – believed to be the incarnate of Kwun Yam Bodhisattva – whose duty is to “oversee wandering spirits so that they accept the offerings in an orderly manner”. The other two status are the God of Earth and the God of Mountains. The God of Earth has ingots in hand and is the master of all treasures of the earth; the God of Mountains bears a flag that commands wind, rain and thunder. The residents hope to bring good weather and prosperity to Cheung Chau through worshipping these deities.



   


   

Carnival Parade


The climax of the festivities is the parade-in-the-air held at 2pm on the 8th of the 4th Lunar month. Various groups and local communities dispatch parade-in-the-air, dancing lion and kylin teams, marching bands with Chiuchow gong and drums in over a dozen groups to parade in the major streets of the city centre, and onlookers enjoy the parade from both sides of the street. The designs of the parade-in-the-air are different every year, with characters taken from folk stories or caricatured impersonations of well-known modern characters. Those who performed extraordinarily receive high media exposure.


The parade team is led by the various deities at different temples in Cheung Chau. Each statue is placed in their own palanquins and is carried by numerous bearers. As they arrive at the last legs of the road leading up to the shrine, the bearers pick up speed to deliver the statue to the shrine in a jog. It is named “the Bodhisattva run”. In the past the fastest group to arrive at the shrine would be considered to receive the best luck, but after numerous fights over the first place the rules were changed to returning to the shrine in designated order.

   

Spirit assuaging ceremony


After the end of the parade, the visitors begin to leave but the residents taking part in Da Jiu begin their busy preparations for the climax of the festival. They will move the King of Ghosts to an open space beside the shore, and place 36 tables of vegetarian banquet in front for the feasting of the wandering spirits. The Taoist Priests chant invocations to assuage the spirits and the residents come to give offerings. At around 11 pm, the King of Ghosts is cremated with the implication that it will bring the wandering ghosts as it leaves the world of men, leaving the community in peace. The 3-day Da Jiu comes to an end, and the period of abstinence ends.


Bun Scrambling


After cremating the King of Ghosts, the Bun Scrambling began at 12 mid-night. In the past all residents of island could scramble for the buns – the more they got the greater the fortune. But since the collapse of the bun mountain in 1978, the activity was banned and the buns are now distributed to the residents on the following day. In 2005, with the help of the Civil Affairs Bureau, the Bun Scrambling activity was revived though in a different form. It becomes a sports activity of some entertainment value; the real buns are also replaced by props and the participants are not limited to residents of Cheung Chau. All those who reach a certain level of skill may compete.


8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


Tam Kung Festival is on the same day as the Buddha’s birthday, and enjoys the benefit of a public holiday which on one hand allows believers to bring incense to the Tam Kung Temple, and on the other draws the public to the Tam Kung Festival Parade at Shau Kei Wan. Shau Kei Wan Main Street East, busy on an ordinary day, is positively packed on the morning of the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The lion and dragon dance teams march towards the Tam Kung Temple by the harbour front, dancing and sounding gongs and drums to the cheers of the onlookers.

Tam Kung in person    


Who is Tam Kung? There are different versions of the folklore. According to the Chinese Temples Committee, Tam Kung is originally named Tam Qiao, and was born in Guishan of Huidong County in Yuan Dynasty(presently Huizhou County of Guangdong). He gained passage to the heavenly way at the age of 12, and possessed the power to call wind and rain and heal the sick, and was thus revered as a deity. His power to predict the weather won him the trust of the fisherfolk. In the past, Sau Kei Wan was a fisherfolk community, and the stonecutters from Hui and Chiu Counties also came here to quarry stone; the Tam Kung Temple built in 1905 was the place where they paid their homage.

Festivities


The past Tam Kung Festivals at Sau Kei Wan featured opera and floral tribute scrambling activities. The residents organized a deity parade in 1961 during the cholera outbreak, but the festivities have diminished since. In the mid-1990s the festival saw a revival, helped along by the public holiday of Buddha’s Birthday, which allowed a growing number of the public to join the festivities. The organizers come up with new activities every year featuring different performing organizations hoping to elicit public interest and bring thriving business to the eateries in the district.

The Tam Kung Festival Parade has evolved into the largest festivity of Sau Kei Wan District. The parade is overseen by two organizers which begin their parades near Shing Wong Temple at different hours, each bearing unique features. In 2003, parade-in-the-air elements were added; in 2006 boys impersonating Tam Kung joined the parade; 2007’s parade featured artistic roller skating performances, which incorporated western elements into the Chinese festival. In 2010, on the eve of the Tam Kung Festival, the organizers organized the first “Parade on the Water” and revived the god-worshipping plays, and drove the festivities to a new height.

Martial arts showcase


Every festival parade is an opportunity for martial arts or lion dance societies to showcase their specialties. They dispatch dancing lions, kylins, golden dragons and auspicious beasts to pray for the blessings of deities and to demonstrate their capabilities to the district and other societies. It was a martial arts showcase with different schools of marital arts coming together at one place.


In the Tam Kung Festival Parade, one sees certain martial arts societies performing their specialties including double or even triple shoulder stand, and lion dancing on top of a bamboo pole. Some groups even dispatch disciples to perform kung-fu or spar using weapons, turning the religious parade into a martial arts carnival.

   

Performance by auspicious beasts    


In the parade one also sees all manners of auspicious beasts. There are numerous types of southern lions, for example the red-and-black “General Kwan” lion, the black-and-white “General Zhangfei” lion, the Hakka kylin, the Hoklo golden lion, and the Nixiu. The same auspicious beast gains different interpretations between different ethnic groups and schools, and demonstrates the uniqueness of the martial arts of a region. As two auspicious beasts encounter, they meet up in a traditional ritual that involves bodily contact and mutual salutation.

An abundance of believers


Some believers also carry their own Tam Kung shrine or large floral tributes as they offer incense at the Tam Kung Temple. They take part in the event in solemn devotion. As one enters the temple, the smoke was pervasive and many queue up to sound the drum immediately after the incense offering to alert the deities.


Sau Kei Wan is a traditional community. Each year many festivities, including numerous Yu Lan Ghost Festivals, are held here. Unlike rural villages, these district festivities are not subsidized or organized by rural committees or village offices, and all funding and arrangements depend on district individuals. Even then, the festivities are colourful and popular, allowing the folk tradition to live on.

 

 

           

    

       

8th of the 4th Month of the Lunar Calendar


Before Hong Kong’s handover to China, few would know which day the Buddha’s birthday is. But after the extensive lobbying by Buddhist organizations, the legislative council passed a legislation after the handover to designate the 8th of 4th Lunar month as a public holiday beginning from 1999. It was the only traditional Chinese religious holiday in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Buddhist Association and other Buddhist organizations organize a series of celebratory events every year around the time of the Buddha’s Birthday, including “bathing the Buddha”, seminars and performances, and ceremonies of mass conversion to Buddhism.

Buddha Bathing Festival


The main rite of the Buddha’s birthday is the bathing of the Buddha. Water is poured over the Buddha’s statue, which is usually a small statue of a top-naked prince assuming a position of “one hand touching the earth and one hand pointing towards the heaven”. According to Buddhist sutras, when Prince Siddh?rtha Gautama of the ancient Indian nation of Kapilavast was born 2,600 years ago, one of his hand touched the earth and another pointed towards the heaven. He walked 7 steps in four directions with one lotus flower blooming in each step he treaded, and intoned, “"Supreme am I in the world, Greatest am I in the world”. Prince Siddh?rtha later became the Buddha (meaning the enlightened one), and was given the revered title of “Sakyamuni”, meaning the saint of the Sakyas. As the prince was born the king of dragons gave him a bath with a shower of water, and this is the origin of the Buddha Bathing Festival.

   

The date of Buddha’s Birthday


When was the Buddha born? Different factions tell different stories. In 1950, a group of Buddhist leaders from Europe, America, and Asia gathered in Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to found The World Fellowship of Buddhists. They discussed the mission and responsibilities of the Buddhists and agreed upon the date of Buddha’s birthday. According to the results of their discussion, the Buddha was born in 623 B.C.E., achieved enlightenment in 588 B.C.E., lived for 80 years in our world and arrived at nirvana in 543 B.C.E. The Buddhist calendar began from when the Buddha arrived at nirvana, with the addition of one year upon each Buddha’s Birthday. 2010 was year 2554 of the Buddhist Calendar.

However, Buddhists remain divided over the birthday of the Buddha. Chinese Buddhism (including China, Taiwan and Macau) took the 8th of the 4th lunar month as the Buddha’s Birthday, and Korea followed suit. South Asian nations including Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and some regions of India adopted the day of the full-moon in the 5th Lunar Month as the Vesak – the Buddha veneration festival. They also celebrate celebrates the birth, enlightenment and nirvana of the Buddha on this day.

The significance of the bathing


Buddhist monasteries of larger scales in Hong Kong held public Buddha bathing ceremonies on 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Shatin, for example, received large crowds of believers through the day. In the morning, the monks conduct an assembly and chant sutras at the Main Temple Building. Later, led by a senior monk, believers queue outside Pagoda to bath the Buddha statue using a water scoop. Buddhists believe that besides commemorating the birth of the Buddha, the bathing ceremony also cleanses the filth in a person’s heart, i.e. greed, anger and delusion. Through cleansing and reflecting on one’s ails, one achieves the purpose of eliminating vexations.


The celebration of Buddha’s Birthday in Hong Kong also carries folk colour. The volunteers of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery distribute white rice donated by charitable individuals on Buddha’s Birthday in front of the Main Temple Building. They place white rice and peanuts (the fruit of longevity) in red packets which are distributed to all who come to worship the Buddha. The packet is called the “rice of wellbeing”.

   

Therevada Buddhism


Buddhists of the Therevada Buddhist sect in Hong Kong, in particular Thai domestic workers, celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday on the day of the full-moon in the 5th Lunar Month. On the Sunday closest to the Buddha’s Birthday, they bring food and gifts to the Thai Buddhist Monastery at Tai Wo, Tai Po to offer to the monks living in the temple, to accumulate beneficence for themselves. They will eat before a large Buddha statue in the temple and listen to the monks telling the accomplishments of the Buddha, followed by sutra chanting. Later, flower and incense in hand, they follow the monks and circle the Buddha statue three times in solemn silence.


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8th day of the 4th month of the Lunar Calendar


The Cheung Chau Bun Festival – also known as Tai Ping Ching Chiu, or Da Jiu – is organized for three days every year. In the past, the days were designated through divination, and thus varies year-to-year. The divination results in 2000 was the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. Because that day was The Buddha’s Birthday Public Holiday, large numbers of visitors attended the parade-in-the-air. In the following year, as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival Committee carried out the divination rituals, they conveyed to Pak Tei – the deity of the North – their wish to fix the date of Da Jiu on the 8th of the 4th Lunar Month. The divination results returned a positive reply. The date of Da Jiu has since been fixed.

The origin of Da Jiu


Da Jiu of Cheung Chau was originally named “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian Tai Ping Ching Chiu”. The “Heavenly Emperor of Xuan Tian” was Pak Tai, the deity of the North and the most important deity of Cheung Chau. Folklore has it that 200 years ago, the island suffered from a pandemic which killed many. The local folks prayed to Pak Tai for deliverance from the calamity, and was given the hint that a Taoist Priest of Hoi Luk Fung should be hired to set an altar to assuage the wandering spirits and seek blessings of peace. The ceremony became the yearly Tai Ping Ching Chiu. In the beginning there were only god-worshipping and spirit-assuaging rituals, but later parade-in-the-air, god-worshipping plays and Bun Scrambling events were added which attracted large numbers of visitors. Today, the festival is a major event of Hong Kong and is listed as one of the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage items.

Worship activities


On the eve of the Da Jiu, the residents go to the Yuk Hui Temple (also known as Pak Tai Temple) and other temples on the island to summon the deities to the temporary shrine built at the Pak Tai Square, so that believers can pay their homage at the location. At 11 pm of the 7th of the 4th Lunar month, the altar rituals commence and the entire island enters a period of abstinence. In the 3-day Da Jiu, the Taoist priest conducts various rituals including presenting offerings, repentance, appeasing the spirits, and thanking the heavens. It is a ceremony of rich local colour.

 

Lay-out of the Da Jiu arena


Besides the shrine, the bamboo-shed theatre, and the Taoist priest shed, 3 large bun mountains and several dozens of small bun mountains are built to assuage the spirits. 3 5-metre tall paper statues are erected beside the mountains, including the King of Ghosts – believed to be the incarnate of Kwun Yam Bodhisattva – whose duty is to “oversee wandering spirits so that they accept the offerings in an orderly manner”. The other two status are the God of Earth and the God of Mountains. The God of Earth has ingots in hand and is the master of all treasures of the earth; the God of Mountains bears a flag that commands wind, rain and thunder. The residents hope to bring good weather and prosperity to Cheung Chau through worshipping these deities.



   


   

Carnival Parade


The climax of the festivities is the parade-in-the-air held at 2pm on the 8th of the 4th Lunar month. Various groups and local communities dispatch parade-in-the-air, dancing lion and kylin teams, marching bands with Chiuchow gong and drums in over a dozen groups to parade in the major streets of the city centre, and onlookers enjoy the parade from both sides of the street. The designs of the parade-in-the-air are different every year, with characters taken from folk stories or caricatured impersonations of well-known modern characters. Those who performed extraordinarily receive high media exposure.


The parade team is led by the various deities at different temples in Cheung Chau. Each statue is placed in their own palanquins and is carried by numerous bearers. As they arrive at the last legs of the road leading up to the shrine, the bearers pick up speed to deliver the statue to the shrine in a jog. It is named “the Bodhisattva run”. In the past the fastest group to arrive at the shrine would be considered to receive the best luck, but after numerous fights over the first place the rules were changed to returning to the shrine in designated order.

   

Spirit assuaging ceremony


After the end of the parade, the visitors begin to leave but the residents taking part in Da Jiu begin their busy preparations for the climax of the festival. They will move the King of Ghosts to an open space beside the shore, and place 36 tables of vegetarian banquet in front for the feasting of the wandering spirits. The Taoist Priests chant invocations to assuage the spirits and the residents come to give offerings. At around 11 pm, the King of Ghosts is cremated with the implication that it will bring the wandering ghosts as it leaves the world of men, leaving the community in peace. The 3-day Da Jiu comes to an end, and the period of abstinence ends.


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