Di Zang's Birthday Celebration

Did you miss celebrating Di Zang's birthday?  If so, I am not surprised.  He is a benevolent master of the underworld, a deity brought to Hong Kong around 60 years ago by people from the Hokklo dialect group in eastern Guangdong, mainland China.  These people were refugees, squatters and it took them many years to save enough money to build their own temples in Kwun Tong area of Kowloon. It is a very small, yet close-knit community, that still retains their own language and culture in Hong Kong.

On Oct 19th, I joined a small tour to experience the beginning of the days of celebration for this deity. The start of the celebrations is the dance through the streets from one temple to two others, to gather the deities from there and bring them back to the main temple for the celebrations.  As soon as we entered the main temple, the bustle of activity told us this was an exciting event!  If you have ever watched church ladies preparing for a potluck dinner, you can picture what is going on.....

I think the travel mug may be a

recent addition to the rituals!



Along with the ladies, there were others starting their worship.  These traditions have lasted for thousands of years and across thousands of miles.  

The birthday celebrations, though starting with the gathering of deities, really focused on days of operas.  How many performances depended on the donations made for the event.  During poor economic times, there may only be a few days worth.  The past year has been good in this community as they are prepared for ten days of performances!  As a motivator and sign of recognition, they post who has donated what amount of money - would this work in your organization???

Because the Hokklo group is small, they have to bring in an opera troupe from mainland China who speak their language.  We were fortunate to see them preparing for the procession to the other temples.  The make up, costumes and people are beautiful! 

The parts of the procession, and opera, are the dragon and unicorn - two mystical and powerful beasts; the horses which mean prosperity and austerity;

 women carrying flower offerings to the various deities;

a sedan chair for the deities gathered from the other temples to be carried in; and much more.   

At last, all seemed to be ready, and after each of these elements performing for the deities in the main temple, off to the streets to gather the deities from the two other Hokklo temples.  We followed the procession, along with many Hokklo people who graciously showed us their world and talked about it. 

I have put it in a short video...the procession and gathering of deities took over an hour but you only have to watch a couple minutes of it.  Enjoy the contrast of the traditional procession through the modern streets where police stop traffic for the parade.  Also enjoy the moments of still shots with no sound...with the drums and other instruments, we were all feeling it effect our hearing over the hour!

I have so many other shots and videos that I would be happy to share with you in person if you wish....this is long enough, however it speaks of the contrast in old and new that trive together in Hong Kong. 

As usual, love you all
Linda (and Jeff)

National Day and Language Differences

Happy Fall Friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving...we had friends over, squished seven people around our table built for six, and enjoyed the traditional turkey, stuffing, and fall desserts.  We introduced our British friends to pumpkin pie.  We were missing the coloured leaves, but discovered Thanksgiving is more about gathering together and being thankful, and that we did!

October 1st was National Day.  This is the celebration of the communist party taking over China.  This is one of those holidays that Hong Kong did not celebrate prior to it returning to China's control.  Jeff and I were fortunate enough to be invited to a friends house to watch the fireworks down in Victoria Harbour. Their home is on Victoria Peak, so enjoy just a couple of minutes of this 27 minute show!

If you lived on mainland China, you would have enjoyed the whole week following October 1st off from work.  It is known as "The Golden Week", and what that meant for us in Hong Kong was the influx of thousands and thousands of mainlanders touring and shopping in Hong Kong.  Wow, the city was noticeably busier!  Glad they have all gone home again and we are back to just the usual crush of people!

Language differences show up in unexpected ways.  We often take pictures of signs where the English translation is close, but not quite right.  Other signs just have the phrasing in ways that seems slightly incorrect to us.  Enjoy just a few of them: (if you cannot read them, click on them to make them bigger)

Close to how we would phrase it...

How does a Vietnamese sandwich
"Fresh up your life"?

This was outside of a
restaurant selling "sea food"



We have not eaten here...a little afraid of the mystery meat

I was meeting one of the pastors of our church during our first month here, and he brought me here since it is Canadian.  Well, not being from Western Canada, I had never heard of "The White Spot".  Again, who knew I had to come to Hong Kong to experience "A Canadian Legend since 1928" (that is what is says on the bottom of the sign)

Took this for our environmental daughter......a reminder for us all!

All parents, feel free to copy this and send it to your kids!  A good life lesson for all (depending on where the advice is coming from of course)

As you wander the many street markets, you never know what you may see.  Not sure if you get a mango with every cat, or a cat with every mango.  By the look on the cat, I think he is a guard cat making sure no one steals a mango!

It is this kind of thing - the unexpected - that makes Hong Kong such a joy to wander around (well, today it is pouring rain, so my friend and I have cancelled our wandering for today).  You just never know when you will see someone like this amongst the suits and designer clothes walking by:

Proof that Jeff does get
out to enjoy some of
the city.....
contemplating life in
Hong Kong Park

We hope you are enjoying the colours and coolness of the fall.  We are enjoying 'cooler' weather (down to mid to high 20s, not mid 30s!), and are very thankful.      As always, love you all - Linda and Jeff