Calendar of Festivals

Precise dates cannot be given as Chinese festivals are fixed according to the lunar calendar.

January/February: Lunar New Year. A three-day holiday when Chinese families get together. Flower markets are particularly colourful and temples are packed with worshippers. People hand out lai see (lucky money packets) to children. There’s a huge parade on the first day of the new year, and an elaborate fireworks display over the harbour on the second.

April: Ching Ming Festival. This Confucian festival, timed to the solar calendar, is one of two annual holidays to honour the dead. Ancestors’ graves are swept and offerings of food, wine or flowers are made.

April/May: Tin Hau Festival. The Taoist Goddess of the Sea is honoured by fishing communities, especially at Joss House Bay, where decorated junks and sampans converge with offerings. Smaller celebrations, including lion-dancing, take place elsewhere.

May: Birthday of the Lord Buddha. In Buddhist temples the Buddha’s image is bathed in scented water to symbolise the washing away of sins. Ngong Ping and Po Lin have special events. Cheung Chau Bun Festival is celebrated by the erection of bamboo towers piled with some 5,000 pink and white lotus-paste buns. It lasts for five or nine days and includes processions, lion and dragon dances and traditional temple rites.

May/June: Dragon Boat Festival (Tuen Ng). Oarsmen in long, thin dragon boats race to the beat of big bass drums and Chinese gongs. Annual International Dragon Boat races are held a few days after the festival.

August: Seven Sisters’ (Maidens’) Festival. Women wanting husbands leave offerings at Lovers’ Rock. Hungry Ghosts Festival (Yue Lan). Paper offerings are burned and food left out to placate ghosts.

September: Mid-Autumn Festival. As the full moon rises, tots carrying paper lanterns congregate in open spaces or high places and eat moon cakes (ground sesame and lotus seeds or dates).

October: Cheung Yeung Festival. On the ninth day of the ninth moon, people visit ancestors’ graves and try to reach a high place for luck.