Late
Jan
Chinese
New Year Parade in Hong Kong
One of
the best places in the world to celebrate Chinese New Year
has to be the island of Hong Kong. Dragon dancers are the
star attraction, as the annual Chinese New Year Parade hits
Wan Chai Harborfront with a cavalcade of colorful floats,
accompanied by performers from all over the world.
Decorated
floats, performers, street entertainers, music and dance take
over the picturesque harborfront, spilling out into the streets
throughout the city. Fireworks over Victoria Harbor mark
the end of the parade.
There
are also amazing flower displays all over the city, with other
parades and markets taking place in Victoria Park on Hong
Kong Island and Fahui Park in Mong Kok on Kowloon.
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2807 6543
Early
Feb
Spring
Lantern Festival (Yuen Siu)
The people
of Hong Kong believe that during Full Moon in February (the
first of the Chinese New Year) various spirits swoop above
the ground. To avoid being snatched by the ghosts, hundreds
of locals take to the streets with lanterns, representing
everything from dragons to Michael Jackson.
Many
believe that the lanterns help guide the spirits back to the
world of the dead safely, while a separate tradition tells
of the Jade Emperor (the Emperor of Heaven), who wanted to
exact revenge on a man who had killed his precious goose.
The Emperor planned to torch the man's property but a good
spirit warned the man, telling him to hang lanterns out at
the first full moon of the year: the Emperor thought the place
was already on fire and left it alone.
All of
these traditions celebrate good fortune, and the self-made
lanterns often come with riddles attached.
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2807 6543
Early
Feb-Early Mar
Hong
Kong Arts Festival
The Hong
Kong Arts Festival - first held in 1973 - is the premier arts
event of the year, featuring dance, visual art, theatre and
music. Each spring a wealth of international artists, as well
as the best Asian and local performers, makes this one of
the most vibrant and exciting festivals in the world.
Highlights
for 2006 include a nod in the direction of Mozart's 250th
birthday. Iván Fischer brings the Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment for two mostly Mozart concerts (3 & 4 March),
while
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2734 9011
Late
March-Early Apr
Hong
Kong Sevens.
International
Sevens was born in 1975 as a result of an idea of the then-chairman
of the HKRFU and an imaginative marketing executive - with
the first game actually taking place on 28 March 1976. Initially
the Twickenham-based RFU were dismissive of the tournament,
so it began life as a club competition, but was soon legitimized
as a national tour and has grown in stature ever since. Hong
Kong's glamorous surroundings only add to the excitement of
the event.
+852
2504 8311
Early
April
Tomb
Sweeping Day
China's
Tomb Sweeping Day, every year in April, is a day for worshipping
ancestors; people visit the graves of their departed relatives
and burn "ghost money" (money for use in the afterworld)
in their honor.
Also
called Qingming Day, this tradition is observed by millions
of Chinese all across the world. It has its roots partly in
the half-legendary huge resettlements that were ordered during
the Ming Dynasty, when thousands of families were ordered
first to Konglong county before being sent to their final
destinations.
Thus,
to this day, many Chinese believe their ancestors came from
that county. The event also appeals to many overseas Chinese
who identify their own diaspora with that of the people who
suffered under the Ming rulers.
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10 6520 1114
Early
April
The
Clear and Bright Festival (Ching Ming)
This
ancient Chinese festival takes place 106 days after the Winter
Solstice in the cemeteries of Hong Kong, where families pay
respect to their ancestors with various offerings.
One of
the most important parts of Chinese culture (and one which
has been all but forgotten in Western society) is the veneration
and honoring of the dead. To honor your dead you must provide
a long line of family, hence the importance of the family
in Chinese culture. Among the offerings, "spirit money"
(paper money) is often burnt, and it is said that during Ching
Ming some true devotees actually scrub the bones of their
loved ones.
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2807 6543
Early?Mid
April
Hong
Kong International Film Festival
The Hong
Kong International Film Festival is a large, non-competitive
event playing over the Easter holidays at a number of venues.
With over 200 films every year, the program is large enough
to accommodate a focus on Hong Kong cinema as well as the
usual international festival-circuit fare. It also includes
retrospectives, an award for upcoming Asian directors and
a number of themed exhibitions, gala presentations and other
events. In 2006 there are special celebrations for the 30th
festival.
The festival
was founded in 1977 by the Hong Kong Urban Council and responsibility
passed to the newly-formed Leisure and Cultural Services Department
in 2000. As well as showcasing the astonishingly creative
and energetic local cinema industry, the retrospective section
brings out an annual themed program of treasures from the
archives. The festival is non-competitive and is split into
four main sections; Asian Cinema, Hong Kong Panorama, World
Cinema and the archive section.
The mainstay
of the festival consists of local and international premičres,
adhering to the trademark combination of Asian Vision and
Global Vision as the twin strands. For the 30th festival,
to encourage filmmaking at university, there is the Fresh
Wave Joint-U Short Film Competition which, following workshops
at the end of 2005, will see student films shown at the festival.
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2970 3300
Early
May
Tin
Hau Festival
Tin Hau
is the Chinese goddess of the sea, making her particularly
significant to the sea-dominated city of Hong Kong. The fishing
town of Sai Kung is at the heart of the celebrations for the
goddess' birthday, although the festivities reverberate around
the towns and villages of Hong Kong.
Every
year traditional rites are observed at community temples,
but more eye-catching are the colorful parades of floats,
fireworks and lion dances and the sailing of hundreds of multicolored
junks and sampans in Victoria Bay and beyond. Tin Hau's birthday
is celebrated to bring safety, fine weather and full nets
to the fishermen, who adorn their boats with colorful ribbons,
offerings and other symbols of devotion.
The boats,
clad in gaily-colored decorations and streaming pennants,
make their way toward the many Tin Hau temples. Most of the
flotilla heads towards the biggest temple, Da Miao (the Great
Temple) in Joss House Bay in the New Territories. There they
make their offerings, pay their respects and pray for a bountiful
and safe year ahead.
The origins
of Tin Hau are diffuse but popular belief is that she was
born the sixth and youngest daughter of a Sung dynasty (AD
960-1279) mandarin named Mo Niang, lived in a small fishing
village called Pu Tien in the Fukien Province on the south-eastern
coast of China and is supposed to have endeared herself to
sailors from a very young age through an uncanny ability to
predict the weather. Born in the eighth year of Emperor Yuen
Yan's reign (1098), it wasn't until early days of the Ch'ng
dynasty (1644-1912), about 600 years after her death, that
the benevolent Emperor K'ang-hsi (1654-1722) canonized her
with the title "Queen of Heaven" and mother of all
boat people and sailors.
Tin Hau
is supposed to quell the seas, allowing bountiful hauls for
fishermen and keeping sickness away from all seafaring types.
It is said that Mo Niang could walk on water if supplied with
a straw mat, so elaborate mats are woven as offerings for
this day.
+852
2807 6543
Mid
May
Bun
Festival
Cheung
Chau is Hong Kong's largest fishing island and each May sees
floating children and towers of lucky buns; the world's only
Bun Festival.
The origins
of this Taoist rite can be traced back hundreds of years to
the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when Cheung Chau was devastated
by a storm, followed by an outbreak of the plague which claimed
many lives. Believing the island to be haunted, the locals
performed a sacrificial ceremony to placate the Gods and pray
for their favor. The festival is now timed to coincide with
Buddha's birthday.
No Chinese
festival is complete without lion and dragon dancers, but
this island's quirk is the children dressed as mythological
and modern heroes suspended above the crowds on the tips of
swords and paper fans. They form the float procession of Piaose
and are all safely secured within steel frames, though they
appear to glide through the air. The airborne children hardly
move and their eyes can be half closed, not because they are
in a state of Nirvana but because they are often drugged so
as to endure the ceremonies. Though such treatment of children
may be disturbing to a Western mindset it is such a unique
festival that anthropologists are drawn to it every year and
parents consider it a great honour for their offspring to
be part of the procession.
At a
quarter to midnight a paper effigy of the King of the Ghosts
is set on fire, giant incense sticks are lit and the buns
are harvested and distributed to the villagers, who, delighted
to be sharing in this auspicious good fortune, celebrate late
into the night.
+852
2807 6543
Mid
May
Birthday
of Lord Buddha
Buddha's
birthday is celebrated throughout Hong Kong (and officially,
since 1999), though prime sites are the Po Lin monastery on
Lantau Island (home to the world's largest seated outdoor
Buddha), the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Sha Tin and
the Miu Fat Monastery in Tuen Mun.
Worshippers
show their devotion by bathing the Buddha statues and feasting
on sumptuous vegetarian dishes. Though a day of great reverence,
non-Buddhist visitors are welcome and it is an opportunity
to visit Hong Kong's Buddhist monks and monasteries.
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807 6543
Mid
May
Tam
Kung Birthday Festival
Tam Kung
is an important patron deity of seafarers. His birthday festival,
which coincides with Buddha's, is celebrated with considerable
devotion and fanfare at the Tam Kung Temple, built in 1905
in the Shau Kei Wan district on Hong Kong Island. Shau Kei
Wan is also known as Ah Kung Yam, or "Ancestor's Rocky
Hill".
Tam Kung
is a local Taoist boy-god said to control the weather. He
can calm storms by throwing peas into the air, or cause them
by throwing water. His cult is strong in coastal areas like
Hong Kong and Macau. Little is known about this cryptic figure
except that he was of human origin, born in Guangdong province
during the Ching dynasty, and that he is the object of devotion
and veneration for boatsmen and seafarers in the region, who
invoke him for the protection of their livelihood.
+852
807 6543
Early
June
Tuen
Ng (Dragon Boat Festival)
These
dragon boat races were first held in 1976 as part of the 2000-year-old
Tuen Ng Festival and have now become an annual event. Over
100 teams from across the globe participate in the waters
around Hong Kong and its islands. After the locals have raced,
the event becomes an international open. The main competitions
take place on Shing Mun River, at Sha Tin in the New Territories.
The teams
race the elaborately-decorated boats to the beat of heavy
drums. The boats, more than ten meters in length, have ornately-carved
and painted dragon heads and tails. Each carries a crew
of 20-22 paddlers. Sitting two abreast, with a steersman at
the back and a drummer at the front, the paddlers are urged
on by the pounding drums and the roar of the crowds.
The festival
commemorates the death of a popular Chinese national hero,
Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River during the
3rd century BC, in protest against a corrupt government. Legend
has it that as locals attempted to rescue him, they beat drums
to scare fish away and threw dumplings into the sea to keep
the fish from eating his body. During the festival period,
people eat rice-and-meat dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves
and many look forward to swimming, or even simply dipping
their hands in the water, to symbolize trying to save him.
There
is also a Bathtub Race: one of the most fun-filled competitions
of the day. Each bathtub can have two paddlers and handsome
prizes are promised to the winners.
+852
2807 6543
Mid
July
Hong
Kong Book Fair
A high-profile
event in the Hong Kong calendar, the annual Book Fair at the
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center goes well beyond
books and into the realms of electronic publishing, educational
software and audio-visual learning aids. There are journals,
newspapers and, of course, a variety of books from a wide
range of Hong Kong publishers.
There
are more than 350 exhibitors and visitor numbers reach an
impressive 500,000 over the course of the event. The festivities
and reading materials are in Chinese.
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2582 8888
Mid
August
Hong
Kong Food Expo
Organized
by the Trade Development Council at the Hong Kong Convention
and Exhibition Center, this annual expo celebrates and promotes
the island's food industry to both trade and consumers. Visitors
get to enjoy entertainment, demonstrations, food sampling,
and kitchen tips during this five-day event.
Over
200 suppliers from Australia, the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong,
Korea, Taiwan and the United States showcase their latest
products. Included are gourmet and celebrity chefs' cooking
demonstrations.
+852
2582 8888
Mid
September
Mid-Autumn
Moon Cake Festival
An ancient
Chinese tradition, the Mid-Autumn Moon Cake Festival a time
in which families gather to relax, give thanks, celebrate
family unity and view the full moon, and a celebratory banquet
is typically held at midnight.
During
the festival people eat special yuek beng (moon cakes) containing
any ingredients from ground lotus and sesame to various sugary
fillings. In Shanghai red bean paste has always been a favorite
filling for revelers.
Another
feature of the festival is the colored Chinese paper lanterns,
traditionally in the shapes of animals, which decorate almost
every house. Festival altars are also adorned with five dishes
of round fruits: apples, peaches etc., as these symbolize
the moon, as well as family unity.
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10 6520 1114
Early
December
Hong
Kong Open Golf Championships
Set amidst
the stunning scenery of Fanling, the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship
is the longest-running professional sporting event, with many
great players waiting to take up the challenge.
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2807 6543 |
