1) Chinese New Year (the first day of the first month of the lunar year )
The Lunar New Year is one of the grandest and most lively traditional Chinese festivals, especially in Hong Kong, where it is celebrated with joyful celebrations and events, besides the custom of celebrating the New Year, which is passed down from generation to generation. Chinese New Year customs, there are also joyous New Year celebrations to create one of the biggest Lunar New Year celebrations in the world! The Lunar New Year's Flower Market, the glamorous night parade, the magnificent fireworks display, the exciting sports events and a series of other exciting events will all take place during the Lunar New Year period, allowing you to experience Hong Kong's festive character and living culture to the fullest!
2) Che Kung's Birthday (1st day of Lunar New Year)
Che Kung is said to be an ancient general of the Song Dynasty who rescued Shatin from the plague. On the second and third day of the first month of the Lunar New Year, the faithful will go to the Che Kung Temple to pray for blessings and make wishes.
3) Lantern Festival (15th day of the first month)
Attend the Lantern Festival and enjoy the romantic atmosphere of Chinese Valentine's Day while viewing the lanterns.
The Lantern Festival is China's Valentine's Day, and colorful traditional lanterns can be seen everywhere. In the evening, families and couples celebrate with riddles at lantern festivals.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department organizes lantern festivals in different places every year, creating a beautiful scene for many couples.
4) Ching Ming Festival (Lunar March)
Worshipping ancestors has been a traditional Chinese custom for thousands of years.
On Ching Ming Day, filial sons and daughters go to the graves of their ancestors, clearing away weeds and offering fruits, incense and wine as a sign of respect for their ancestors. Most public transportation can reach the cemeteries in various districts, and the MTR has special overtime service arrangements to ease the flow of people going to the cemeteries in the New Territories. Please allow more time for transportation if your itinerary passes through the cemetery route on the same day.
5) Tin Hau Festival (March 23)
Tin Hau is the patron saint of Hong Kong's fishermen and is celebrated every year at Tin Hau Temples in all districts of Hong Kong. In order to pray for peace, good weather and a full load, fishermen will paint their fishing boats brightly and colorfully and sail them to Tai Miu Wan in Sai Kung to reward the god and offer incense; there are also parades and lion dance performances at the Yuen Long Stadium.
6) Cheung Chau Bun Festival (8th April)
The Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a traditional festival with distinctive Taoist flavors that is celebrated by the residents on Cheung Chau Island every year.
The focal point of the festival is the three bamboo scaffoldings in front of the Pak Tai Temple, which are covered with peace bags. The highlight of the festival is the parade, where teams of floating colors, waking lions and unicorns parade around the island, and children dressed as ancient and modern characters or characters from legends stand on stands and travel through the streets. The Bun Festival is also known as the "Bao Shan Festival" because of the mountain bunting.
The origin of the festival, which attracts many visitors every year, is said to be the result of a plague that struck the island hundreds of years ago, so the residents dressed up as gods and goddesses and paraded through the streets of Cheung Chau to ward off the plague; another theory says that the Jiao-festival is an annual festival of fasting.
The festival lasts for a week, and when all the rituals are completed, the final event is the "Bun Snatching" activity. At the sound of a signal, participants climb up the bun hill and grab as many buns as they can, and the buns they grab will be distributed to other residents. "The event was discontinued in 1978
and resumed in 2005, and visitors now have the opportunity to witness this unique event once again.
This is a great opportunity for visitors to see what it is all about.
7) Buddha's Birthday (April 8)
Buddha's Birthday, also known as the "Bathing Buddha Festival", is celebrated at major Buddhist temples in Hong Kong. The Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island, home to the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha, is one of the most important places for worship, where devotees can participate in the Buddha bathing ceremony and enjoy delicious vegetarian dishes. Similar ceremonies are held at some of the other temples.
If you are visiting Hong Kong during the Buddha's Birthday, you can visit the Po Lin Monastery to witness the solemn bathing ceremony and other celebrations, as well as visit the main attractions on the island.
8) Tam Kung's Birthday (April 8)
Tam Kung is another patron saint of the sea, bringing peace and joy to fishermen. The ceremony is similar to that of Tin Hau's Birthday, and fishermen often pray to Tam Kung for peace and a good harvest in the coming year.
9) Dragon Boat Festival (5th day of the 5th month)
The Dragon Boat Festival is not only a traditional Chinese festival, but also a lively sports event!
The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the ancient Chinese sage Qu Yuan. More than 2,000 years ago, he drowned himself in the Miluo River in order to warn his ruler. Legend has it that in order to save Qu Yuan's body, the townspeople kept beating gongs and drums to scare away the fish and threw roe into the river to prevent the fish and shrimp from pecking at Qu Yuan's body. Since then, dragon boat racing has become a custom of the Dragon Boat Festival.
Before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, a number of coastal areas in Hong Kong hold traditional dragon boat races. This folkloric festival has developed into an international sport in recent years, making it more interesting to watch. Dragon boat teams, made up of fishermen, sports associations and private organizations, prepare for the races with high morale, and the races themselves are lively and festive, attracting large crowds of people and tourists to join in the fun.
A dragon boat can be up to 10 meters long and can carry 20 to 22 athletes, with elaborate carvings and life-like dragon heads and tails.
During the Dragon Boat Festival, local people like to savor the seasonal mizutaki. Many people also take the opportunity to swim in the blue waves and take a dip in the dragon boat water, which is a symbol of good luck, to feel the festive atmosphere.
10) Guan Di Festival (June 24)
Guan Di is a historical figure from the Three Kingdoms era (220-280 AD) who symbolized justice and loyalty.
The Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road in Hong Kong is a 19th-century building dedicated to Man Cheong Tei (Wen Di) and Guan Di (Wu Di), whose statues are illuminated by long-burning lanterns.
11) Beggar's Nest (7th day of the 7th month)
Girls and young lovers attach great importance to the 7th Sister's Birthday (also known as Beggar's Nest), which symbolizes love.
There are many different stories about the seventh day of the seventh month, one of which originates from a 1,500-year-old Chinese myth. It is said that the Weaving Maiden, a woman with six sisters, hid in a weaving room all year round, weaving cloth on her own and feeling sorry for herself. Her father, the Jade Emperor, could not bear to see his daughter alone, so he allowed her to cross the Milky Way to marry a cowherd.
Since the weaver neglected her weaving work after marriage, the Jade Emperor was furious and ordered her to return home to work and visit her husband only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, when the two of them would meet in the Milky Way.
During the worship ceremony, young ladies prepare offerings to the two stars in the sky that represent the Weaving Maiden and the Cowherd, while the offerings for the Festival of the Seven Sisters usually consist of fruits, and incense and sandalwood are also indispensable. If you are traveling to Hong Kong during this time, you may want to visit the Marriage Stone on Bowen Road in Wan Chai to pray for a good match.
12) Yu Lan Festival (July 15)
In Hong Kong, it is commonly known as the "Ghost Festival". Legend has it that ghosts can come to the earth in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and in some areas, people will burn paper and candles on the roadside to pray for the souls of the ghosts.
13) Mid-Autumn Festival (August 15)
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a good day for reunion. Families have a happy **** dinner and then go out to enjoy the moonlight with mooncakes and fruits, and children carrying lanterns are especially excited! Lanterns come in a variety of styles, including traditional animal shapes, cartoon characters, airplanes, rockets, etc. Modern lanterns using light bulbs are popular among children. Victoria Park in Causeway Bay hosts a large-scale Mid-Autumn Lantern Gala every year, which is very lively!
According to traditional custom, every year around the Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 14th to 16th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, for three nights in a row, residents of Tai Hang in Causeway Bay will dance a 67-meter-long winding fire dragon along many streets and alleys in the district. It's an eye-catching spectacle.
The fire dragon, danced by more than 100 people, will roam around Lotus Court, Wun Sha Street, On Shu Pui Street, San Tsuen Street, Brown Street and Warren Street. At the end of the dance, residents will pluck the incense from the dragon and distribute it to onlookers, who are said to have good luck.
The fire dragon dance is said to have originated from a plague in Tai Hang District about 100 years ago. At that time, residents suffered from epidemics, typhoons and other disasters. In order to drive away these disasters, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, villagers weaved a long dragon made of pearl grass, inserted incense into the body of the dragon, and burned firecrackers while dancing the fire dragon for three days and three nights, and the disasters really disappeared.
14) Monkey King Festival (August 16)
The Monkey King Festival features the Monkey King from Journey to the West. The Monkey King Temple in Hong Kong is located in Sau Mau Ping, Kowloon. In the olden days, a grand event was held on the occasion of the Monkey King Festival, in which mediums who claimed to have been possessed by the Monkey King would perform such acts as walking on coals of fire with their bare feet and climbing up a ladder of swords to receive congratulations on behalf of the Monkey King.
15) Confucius Christmas (August 27)
Confucianists in Hong Kong regard the Confucius Christmas as an important festival.
Confucius was the most influential founder of Confucianism, who adopted the five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith as his credo for self-cultivation.
16) Chrysanthemum Festival (9th day of the 9th month)
Chrysanthemum Festival is a traditional festival for the Chinese people to pay tribute to their ancestors and to honor the elderly. It is also known as the Autumn Festival. On this day, families climb up the mountain to visit the graves with incense, candles, fruits and cakes, which is a homonym of the word "gao," which means "to rise higher and higher.
The Chrysanthemum Festival, with its clear autumn sky, is also a good day for hiking. It is said that the origin of this custom can be traced back to the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.), when a fortune-teller told Huan Jing that on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, he had to go to the highest place in the countryside with his family to avoid calamities for a while. Huanjing obeyed and climbed up the mountain with his family to take refuge. On his way home, he found that the whole countryside had been devastated, and none of the poultry and livestock had been spared. Since then, it has become a custom for people to follow the example of climbing up the mountain.
17) Winter Solstice (11th month of the lunar calendar)
The Winter Solstice is one of the most important traditional festivals for the Chinese people, apart from the Lunar New Year. The Winter Solstice is the day of the year when the evening hours are the longest. According to Chinese tradition, farmers and fishermen store food after the fall harvest to survive the cold winter. On this important holiday, families return home early to **** together and have a rich dinner.
The festival has its roots in the Chinese concepts of yin and yang. Yin and yang symbolize the balance and harmony of life. The Chinese believe that the winter solstice is the time when the dark power and cold nature of yin is at its strongest, but at the same time, it is also an extremely important and critical time, as the light and warmth of yang will gradually outlast the extreme cold nature of yin. Therefore, the Winter Solstice is a time of harmony and joy. On the day of the Winter Solstice, we will celebrate the arrival of the Winter Solstice with a slight change in lifestyle. People dress up in beautiful clothes, visit friends and relatives and give them gifts, and then spend the long night together savoring delicious food, thus giving us a glimpse into the ethical side of the Chinese people.