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RELIGION AND CUSTOM
sea gods and goddesses, reflecting Hong Kong's origin as a fishing port. Except for Kwun Yam, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, the majority of them are deified mortals who, as a result of their performance of true or mythical feats, have been traditionally worshipped. The better known ones are Tin Hau (Goddess of Heaven and protectress of seafarers), Kwan Tai (God of War and the source of righteousness), Hung Shing (God of the South Seas and a weather prophet), Pak Tai (Lord of the North and local patron of the island of Cheung Chau) and Lo Ban Sin Shi (patron of masons and building contractors). Many Tin Hau temples are found near the entrances to fishing harbours, and the best known of these is the one at Fat Tong Mun in Joss House Bay. Other Tin Hau temples which were originally established close to the shore are now some distance inland, as a result of reclamations.
Dedicated to the Gods of Literacy and Martial Valour, the Man Mo temple in Hollywood Road, which is under the control of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, is equally famous. Other popular temples of Taoist origin include the Sik Sik Yuen at Wong Tai Sin in New Kowloon and the Che Kung temple at Sha Tin.
With the rapid growth of the population in new resettlement and other public housing estates, steps are being taken to provide them with proper facilities for worship and the celebration of religious festivals.
In the New Territories, where traditional clan organisation has been preserved to a great extent, 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 life. Animism, in the form of shrines dedicated at the foot of certain rocks and trees where spirits are believed to dwell, is also to be found in the New Territories, particularly among Hakka villagers.
The Chinese as a whole observe five major festivals of the Chinese calendar. The first and the most important is the Lunar New Year. The customary exchanges of gifts and visits to relatives and friends are widely observed. During the Ching Ming Festival, which falls in spring, visits are paid to the graves of the family ancestors. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar and dragon boat races are held at different places throughout Hong Kong. The Mid- Autumn Festival falls on the 15th 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 moun- tain. Visits to the graves of the family ancestors are also paid on this day as well as during the Ching Ming Festival.
The fact that Chinese may follow one or other of these ways or may combine them without any feeling of incongruity, has often made Christianity, with its exclusive aims, seem uncongenial to the Chinese spirit. Nevertheless, Christianity is rooted deeply and growing steadily in Hong Kong.
It dates back almost to the foundation of the British Crown Colony, the first church being established in 1842. Since that time, the Christian church has grown