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RELIGION AND CUSTOM
Except for Kwun Yam, Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, the majority are deified mortals who, as a result of their performance of true or mythical feats, have been traditionally worshipped. Better known 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 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, controlled by 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 Shatin. The Sik Sik Yuen has been rebuilt and was reopened by the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, on September 28, 1973.
With the rapid growth of the population in new resettlement and other public housing estates, steps are being taken to provide proper facilities for worship and 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. Ancestral tablets of the clan are kept in the hall and venerated. Village inhabitants often all belong to the same clan and the hall is the centre of both religious and 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 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 spring Ching Ming Festival, graves of family_ancestors are visited. 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 mountain. Visits to family graves are also paid on this day.
Because Chinese may follow one or other of these ways or may combine them without any feeling of incongruity, Christianity, with its exclusive aims, often seems uncongenial to the Chinese spirit. Nevertheless, Christianity is rooted deeply and growing steadily in Hong Kong.
It dates back almost to the foundation of Hong Kong, the first church being established in 1842. Since then the Christian church has grown steadily--today