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RELIGION
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. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, when gifts of mooncakes 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. It is also a festival on which graves are refurbished. Certain other festivals are celebrated by particular sections of the community. Fishermen pay special and colourful attention to the birthday of their patron saint, Tin Hau, at her temple. The Chiu Chow community celebrates the Yu Lan Tsit, or Festival of the Dead, in the seventh moon, with elaborate Buddhist ceremonies and theatrical performances.
There are comparatively small groups of Chinese Muslims and non-Chinese Muslims, mostly Pakistanis and Indians. The first mosque was built in 1850 on the site of the present mosque in Shelley Street constructed in 1915. A second mosque was built in 1896 in Nathan Road, Kowloon, but in 1902 was transferred to the care of the military authorities for use by Indian troops.
The Parsees were among the foreign communities which arrived with the British in 1841. In 1829 they had established a prayer- house and cemetery in Macau,' and in 1852 they established their first cemetery in Hong Kong in Happy Valley. In 1874 they established a prayer-hall in Elgin Street, which was moved in 1931 to a new site on Leighton Road. There is no Fire Temple or Tower of Silence.
The Jews, of whom there is a small community in the Colony, were also established in Macau prior to the foundation of Hong Kong, where they were among the earliest residents. Their cemetery, on the slopes of Happy Valley, was founded in 1855, and their religious services were originally held in premises rented in the Peel Street-Staunton Street area of the central district of Victoria. The present synagogue, built in 1901, is the gift of the late Sir Jacob Sassoon.
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