108 cheung chau

Monday 27 April 2015

Cheung Chau is one of Hong Kong's 236 islands. It is small, but offers a lot, from ancient temples and nice beaches to the popular Cheung Chau Bun Festival.

When I first saw the card, I was not sure what I am looking at, but then I noticed that those round white and pink things are "buns of good fortune", the key element of the big Bun Festival. During the annual celebrations, people of Cheung Chau not only bake hundreds of them, but also build a bamboo tower decorated with buns! As we can read on discoverhongkong.com "it all started with a plague that devastated Cheung Chau in the late Qing dynasty. The islanders built an altar in front of the Pak Tai Temple and petitioned the god Pak Tai to drive off the evil spirits besieging the island, while parading statues of deities through the narrow lanes of their village. The plague ended after the performance of these Taoist rituals and 100 years later the rituals are still performed in a festival that is listed as an intangible part of China’s cultural heritage." Thank you Winnie!