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Bun Festival attracts tourists to HK's offshore islands
AFP , HONG KONG
Thursday, May 27, 2004,Page 16
A few kilometers away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong lies a small quiet island where villagers were busy preparing yesterday to placate the hungry ghosts of pirates with an unusual offering -- sweet buns.
The Bun Festival is a two-centuries-old religious ceremony and the biggest for some 30,000 villagers of tiny Cheung Chau, or "long island" in Chinese, about 12km to the southwest of Hong Kong island.
Hong Kongers are often considered money-obsessed and little interested in tradition, but the week-long celebration attracts tens of thousands of locals and foreign tourists.
The highlight of the celebration is a colorful parade in the afternoon. As one of the most spectacular events in Hong Kong, visitors will be able to see a parade of floats, lion and unicorn dances winding through the narrow streets of the picturesque island.
The stars of the show are the islanders' children -- heavily made up and dressed in costumes as mythological figures and modern Chinese heros and deities -- who appear to float above the heads of the crowd on an intricate system of rods and wires.
Historically, Cheung Chau was a remote and desolate village filled with fishermen who believed gods could protect their fishing boats from adverse weather.
One day, a fierce storm and an epidemic struck the island, taking many lives. The islanders blamed the disaster on a haunting by ghosts of innocent people killed by pirates.
A prince came to the rescue, instructing the terrified locals to invite a Taoist priest to hold ceremonies to pacify the ghosts -- an event that has carried on till today.
Whenever the people of Cheung Chau wanted to get married, cure a disease, open a shop or launch a boat, they would seek his blessing.
To placate the hungry ghosts, the villagers each year build 15m-tall bamboo towers piled with edible pink-and-white lotus paste buns and effigies of gods.
The "bun towers" are built on scaffolding and erected in front of a temple built in 1783 to commemorate Taoist Pak Tai, who was later named, the "Emperor of Heaven."
Before the festival, people of Cheung Chau traditionally purify themselves by having a bath, eating vegetarian food and refraining from slaughtering livestock for three days. Some fishermen even stop fishing.
In the past, a ritual took place at midnight when hundreds of young islanders competed in a race to scamper up the towers to grab one of the "holy buns" for good luck and health. The higher up the buns, the more luck it brought, they believed.
The practice was abandoned by the Hong Kong authorities after one of the towers collapsed in 1978 causing injuries.
Although the bun towers are still set up around the Pak Tai Temple every year, they are simply handed out to the people of Cheung Chau on the final day of the festival.
This story has been viewed 1245 times.
AFP , HONG KONG
Thursday, May 27, 2004,Page 16
A few kilometers away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong lies a small quiet island where villagers were busy preparing yesterday to placate the hungry ghosts of pirates with an unusual offering -- sweet buns.
The Bun Festival is a two-centuries-old religious ceremony and the biggest for some 30,000 villagers of tiny Cheung Chau, or "long island" in Chinese, about 12km to the southwest of Hong Kong island.
Hong Kongers are often considered money-obsessed and little interested in tradition, but the week-long celebration attracts tens of thousands of locals and foreign tourists.
The highlight of the celebration is a colorful parade in the afternoon. As one of the most spectacular events in Hong Kong, visitors will be able to see a parade of floats, lion and unicorn dances winding through the narrow streets of the picturesque island.
The stars of the show are the islanders' children -- heavily made up and dressed in costumes as mythological figures and modern Chinese heros and deities -- who appear to float above the heads of the crowd on an intricate system of rods and wires.
Historically, Cheung Chau was a remote and desolate village filled with fishermen who believed gods could protect their fishing boats from adverse weather.
One day, a fierce storm and an epidemic struck the island, taking many lives. The islanders blamed the disaster on a haunting by ghosts of innocent people killed by pirates.
A prince came to the rescue, instructing the terrified locals to invite a Taoist priest to hold ceremonies to pacify the ghosts -- an event that has carried on till today.
Whenever the people of Cheung Chau wanted to get married, cure a disease, open a shop or launch a boat, they would seek his blessing.
To placate the hungry ghosts, the villagers each year build 15m-tall bamboo towers piled with edible pink-and-white lotus paste buns and effigies of gods.
The "bun towers" are built on scaffolding and erected in front of a temple built in 1783 to commemorate Taoist Pak Tai, who was later named, the "Emperor of Heaven."
Before the festival, people of Cheung Chau traditionally purify themselves by having a bath, eating vegetarian food and refraining from slaughtering livestock for three days. Some fishermen even stop fishing.
In the past, a ritual took place at midnight when hundreds of young islanders competed in a race to scamper up the towers to grab one of the "holy buns" for good luck and health. The higher up the buns, the more luck it brought, they believed.
The practice was abandoned by the Hong Kong authorities after one of the towers collapsed in 1978 causing injuries.
Although the bun towers are still set up around the Pak Tai Temple every year, they are simply handed out to the people of Cheung Chau on the final day of the festival.
This story has been viewed 1245 times.
