For this month’s cultural post, I wanted to focus on holidays that are celebrated in Hong Kong as well as holidays that are shared with other provinces in China. Through this research, I learned about what festivities people in Hong Kong do on these holidays and their purposes. I found that many of these holidays honor a specific person in the past that has contributed to their society . Similar to the United States, many official holidays celebrate the works and legacy of a particular person such as Martin Luther King Jr Day or Veteran Days. In Hong Kong, there are additional holidays that aren’t classified as official but are generally celebrated to provide the community with something to look forward to celebrating.
One prominent holiday celebrated in Hong Kong is Lunar New Year 春节, but this is not unique to Hong Kong but shared with many Asian countries. This is a 15 days celebration that has a unique theme for each day, and most workers get the first three days off then resume back to work.This official holiday allows people to spend time with their families and friends while eating all sorts of delicious foods such as dumplings. However, during this time many southern provinces in China such as Guangdong don’t emphasize eating dumplings as a big part of tradition. Rather, foods like fish and thin rice noodles are more prominent for Lunar New Year dishes.
One interesting holiday celebrated in Mainland China and Hong Kong is called Ching Ming or tomb sweeping holiday 清明节. This holiday is dedicated to visiting and cleaning ancestral tomb sites. Additionally, people usually pray, make ritual offerings, and burn incense and paper for the deceased. The purpose of the festival is to offer sacrifices in exchange for wealth and peace. Another holiday shared between Mainland China and Hong Kong would be the Dragon Boat Festival. This exciting holiday is set on the fifth month of the lunar new year. People celebrate this holiday by watching teams race in large canoes or “dragon boats''. Teams on the boat have to paddle in unison and use the leader of the pack’s drumming to guide them. There are 20 paddlers and 1 drummer on the boat. In addition to this event for Dragon Boat Festival, one prominent food that people eat during this time is called “zong zi” 粽子. It is made of sticky rice and various fillings such as salty egg yolk, meat, beans, or Chinese sausage and then wrapped in bamboo leaves then boiled. The Dragon Boat Festival honors a Chinese poet called Qu Yuan who jumped into a river to protest against the corruption of government officials. Citizens during that time would throw in foods such as zong zi 粽子 into the river so that the aquatic creatures don’t consume his body. This festival is also honored and celebrated in Taiwan as well.
One last holiday I want to highlight that is unique to Hong Kong is called Cheung Chao Bun Festival. This festival is used to honor the patron deity Pak Tai who helped the local community drive away pirates and evil spirits. One of the highlights of this festival is the massive bun tower that twelve trained individuals must race to collect buns. The higher the buns on the top, the more fortune it is suppose to bring. However a bun tower collapsed in 1978 that injured more than 100 people on site, so the bun tower racing competition was halted until the public demanded that the competition resumed. Previously the bun tower was constructed out of bamboo, so that may have contributed to its collapse given the weight of buns plus the weight of the competitors on the tower. Because of high public demand, the bun competition was brought back in 2005 with criteria put in place to make the competition safer such as only one bun tower was allowed, steel was used to construct the tower instead of bamboo, and only twelve well-trained competitors could climb.
From this research, I admire that communities all over the world have their own celebrations to honor those who died and famous figures. Festivals and holidays are created to help people take a break from this fast-moving world and spend time with those closest to them. Out of all the holidays celebrated in Hong Kong, I found the Cheung Chau Bao Festival to be the most interesting because of the massive bun tower.
Websites Used:
https://www.hong-kong-traveller.com/cheung-chau-bun-festival.html
Comments
I love the idea of Ching Ming and an entire holiday to maintaining the memories of loved ones / ancestors. The bun racing also sounds incredible, if a little dangerous!!