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


"Snow Day" in Hong Kong

Now that we have your attention, we want to share the Hong Kong equivalent to a Canadian snow day.  The advantage of being a country that is only 1104 km2 (426 sq mi) is that when severe weather comes in, you can shut it all down.  The country knows to watch the HK observatory to find out what is going on. On Thursday Typhoon Nesat passed within approximately 400 km from HK, and we awoke to a Signal 8, meaning very high winds and lots of rain.  You can click HERE to further investigate the HK observatory and the levels.  At a Signal 8, all schools, offices, buses, escalators, and many stores are closed.  The MTR (Mass Transportation Rail...subway) continues to work because it is mostly underground. 

We did not fully understand the impact of a Signal 8 being announced, so off Jeff went to work - and quickly discovered the buses weren't working, the escalator wasn't working, and that when he took the MTR to his office, only the security guard was there.  Jeff had to sign in and out of the floor, however he got a tremendous amount of work done!  Mid-afternoon Linda headed to an open grocery store nearby, and discovered it was full of families, parents and kids shopping together.  This is very unusual in HK since it is usually the domestic workers (the help) that do the grocery shopping.  How wonderful for the kids to have Dad home and spending time with them!

Yes, the wind was incredibly strong and yes, from time to time it rained sideways, so we were thankful to only be on the outskirts of the typhoon.  Even on Saturday during our run/hike up the Peak, the evidence of branches down still remained in places.  The wonderful thing about a snow day in HK is that there is nothing to shovel and it is still warm!!

Around the weather we continue to explore and enjoy Hong Kong....

There are some very tall buildings.....

  

some very old temples filled with incense coils that burn for hours and hours ...    and fascinating store fronts to be in awe of (this store sells miniature paper items like clothes, cell phones, cars and more - these are burnt to send them up to deceased ancestors so that they would have them in the after life) 

As we walk through the streets, we often come across little oasis of parks amongst the rush and pace of Hong Kong...this one with its "hobbit door" is one of my favourites!  It also gives us this image of the old and the new existing side by side in Hong Kong.

 There is always the night time view to enjoy....

and beaches to hang out on with friends.....



But the most fun thing we have done in a long time?  Sharing our new home with friends.  Recently a friend from Manila, Anne (who is actually Canadian but we met her diving in the Philippines) came to visit for the weekend.  What great fun to re-discover Hong Kong through her eyes!  We saw many things, explored corners and ate lots!

Lunch by the beach
in Stanley

Supper at S-M-L in
Causeway Bay

Vegetarian lunch at a
Buddhist monastery

Anne being enlightened
with Big Buddha

Thanks for visiting, Anne.....and looking forward to your next visit!  It really is such a joy to see the joy on other people's faces as they discover Hong Kong - the extra room is always ready for visitors!

All this thanks to:

Hope you are all enjoying fall....we miss the changing colours of the leaves.
As always, we love you all
Linda and Jeff

P.S....Happy 90th Alice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Tuesday was a holiday in Hong Kong.  It was mid-autumn festival, a celebration of harvest during the full moon.  This festival includes moon cakes, lanterns and fire dragon dances.



This is the mooncake I received
from the nursery school I
volunteer at

Moon cakes are special sweet cakes traditionally filled with ground lotus and sesame paste, with centres like egg yokes, and more recently chocolate and other sweet fillings. This tradition stems from a 14th Century uprising against the Mongols. In a cunning plan, the rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes that they smuggled to compatriots. This became part of the mid-autumn festival, along with colourful lanterns to help celebrate the largest full moon of the year.

The fire dragon dances started in Tai Hang, a small fishing village, in 1880.  Now it part of the Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.  Tradition holds that the villagers killed a serpent and a few days later a plague spread in the village and many people died.  A village elder received a vision from Buddha telling him to perform a fire dragon dance and to burn fire crackers during the mid-autumn festival.  The sulphur from the fire crackers drove the disease away and the villagers were saved.

Today, this immense celebration still includes all of those elements.  I was fortunate to join in the festivities with a friend, Caroline, and her husband Michael (they are Brits we have met in Hong Kong).  First, we lit a lantern in their home

Caroline with our
lit lantern

Lantern on their balcony
(overlooking Victoria Harbour
and Kowloon)

Next, we headed to the streets of Tai Hang to watch the fire dragon dance.  Just being in the crowd was entertaining as we saw many things.....

People get hungry as they wait

So proud of the roasting pig!

Of course, there were lanterns all around us.....

 

Much to our surprise, this is what happened before the dragon arrived !

Ah, the British empire still alive and well in Hong Kong...bagpipes at a fire dragon dance!! I have now seen Chinese bagpipers (add that to the list of international bagpipers I have seen that includes Filipino!)

Modern fire dragon dance uses 72,000 incense sticks instead of fire crackers and smoke, and we were fortunate to watch them light them. All of the people involved are from this neighbourhood, and are obviously very proud of this event!

The crowd waited in anticipation as the dragon wound its way through the narrow street...and then, cheers ahead and it was here...all 67 m (220 feet) of it!

Next we followed the crowd to Victoria Park nearby for continued festivities.  Of course, there were lots of lanterns

 

 

 The most impressive was the world record breaking fish lantern...37 m  x 9.6 m x 13 m

They started another fire dragon dance, and I have never been in such a crowd of people!  It was all very exciting, and yes, the moon was full!

Well, though I have many more pictures and stories from this magical evening, it all comes down to what most festivals all over the world are about.....the kids

 

 

Even the big kids!  Thanks Michael and Caroline

Put this festival on your calendar and see you next year!  Your room is ready!

As always, love you all

Linda (and Jeff who unfortunately missed this event....he was in Kuala Lumpur)