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RELIGION
Chinese Temples Committee. All revenue obtained from these temples is administered by this Committee whose first obligation is to ensure that the temples are kept in a proper state of repair and to pay for the due observance of religious ceremonies and celebrations. Any surplus is transferred to the General Chinese Charities Fund, which distributes it to charitable organizations in accordance with their needs.
In the New Territories, where a traditional clan organization has been preserved to a much greater extent than in the urban areas, many villages have an ancestral hall where the ancestral tablets of the clan are kept and venerated. In such villages the inhabitants often all belong to the same clan and the hall is the centre of both the religious and the secular organization of the village.
The Chinese as a whole observe five major festivals of the Chinese Calendar. The first on the Calendar and the most important is the Lunar New Year which is welcomed in Hong Kong in the traditional manner with a deafening barrage of fire- crackers, for the free discharge of which general permission is granted for two days. It is a common belief among the Chinese that the mass discharge of firecrackers on this occasion will dispel evil spirits and bad luck and usher in a happy new year. The customary exchanges of gifts and visits to relatives and friends are also widely observed. The Ching Ming Festival falls in the Spring when visits are paid to the graves of the family ancestors. The Dragon Boat Festival is, celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon when dragon-boat races are held at different places throughout the Colony. It has now become a tradition for the Governor to attend the races held at Kennedy Town, which are organized by the Chung Sing Benevolent Society. The races at Tai Po also attract many spectators from Hong Kong and Kowloon to see teams drawn mainly from Government officers who work in the New Territories. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon when gifts of moon-cakes are exchanged among relatives and friends. The ninth day of the ninth moon is Chung Yeung, when large crowds climb Victoria Peak and other hills in imitation of a Chinese family of old who escaped death and misfortune by fleeing to the top of a high mountain. Certain other festivals are celebrated by particular