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thousand dollars. He would not give him the loan. He offered instead to purchase some of this fellow villager's seats. The offer was accepted and the family got some seats near the front.
VII. THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE VILLAGERS
A. Tradition and Continuity
The beliefs in gods and ghosts are still strong among the Dangs. This was most clear in the morning on the main day of the celebration when there was a very strong wind and some of the fa-paais threatened to fall down. There were rumours that some gods had been omitted in the villagers' invitation. “Some gods must have been omitted. Otherwise how can there be such a strong wind?" An elder was asked to tell the priests to invite the omitted gods to the festival site, as a remedy." Something similar had happened 10 years ago. I was told that in the last celebration a few gods were forgotten and not invited, and during the festival suddenly the electricity went out and there was rain and wind. The villagers invited the missing gods and everything was fine again.
Some younger Dangs who were more sceptical had suggested welfare projects instead of the festival for the last two celebrations. For the 1965 occasion they suggested the alternative of building a public school. This was done (the Mung Yeung Public School), but at the insistence of elders the festival had still been celebrated as usual. Something similar happened 10 years ago, and they established a Kam Tin Hospital for Women and Children. This time the younger men did not propose an alternative. They thought maybe there was not going to be another time at all, now that 1997 was so near.
Yet the continuity of the tradition depends not only on the willingness of the villagers to contribute the money and time required. It also requires knowledge about the detailed arrangement for the rites, especially where this jiu differs from others in the region.
Talking with the no. I ritual representative, I found that he knew a lot about many of the events.
There will be two hang-heung [“procession of incense"] on both the main day of the celebration and the following day. The first one will start at about 11 a.m., after ying-bong