The Chinese lunar calendar is peppered with festivals, some originating thousands of years ago. They are always noisy, busy events, and a hugely sociable atmosphere is guaranteed by the crowds coming to watch or participate, along with the accompanying noise, colour and lights – all of which are said to chase away bad luck and ensure a successful event. The biggest and best-known is Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), but smaller events include a few unique to the area.
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Celebrates both the harvest and a fourteenth-century uprising by the Chinese against their Mongol overlords, when heavy moulded cakes stuffed with sweet bean paste are eaten all over Hong Kong.
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The two-week-long Chinese New Year celebrations end with decorative paper lantern displays of all colours, shapes and sizes in parks across the region.
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Hong Kong and Macau usher in the Chinese New Year with brilliantly intense, deafening fireworks displays – Hong Kong’s in particular is like spending forty minutes in the middle of a war zone.
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A Chinese tradition dating back over two thousand years, when teams of narrow hulled, dragon-headed boats race to commemorate the drowning of the famous statesman Chu Yuen in the third century BC.
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A week-long extravaganza on Cheung Chau island (in April or May), featuring outdoor Chinese theatre, dragon dances, stilt walking and twenty-metre-high towers made of steamed buns.
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Festivals