ENG-1958 — Page 331

RELIGION

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Hospitals. The Tung Wah Hospitals also revived in October an ancient and solemn ceremony of Autumn Sacrifice at the Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road. For the first time in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Buddhist Association held a very well attended Memorial Service for the dead on Remembrance Day, at the Tung Lin Kok Yuen; the Government was officially represented.

Mr. Hung Tak-Shing, the descendant in the 77th generation of Confucius, passed through Hong Kong twice in 1958. On both occasions he was given a warm welcome by the local Confucian and cultural bodies. Two of Hong Kong's four Confucian associa- tions, the Confucian Hall and the Confucian Academy, arranged a number of free lectures to the public on Sundays. All four Confucian associations held a joint meeting on the 27th day of the 8th moon (9th October 1958) to commemorate the 2509th anniversary of the birth of Confucius. The ancient rites were observed and, as a means of promoting interest in Confucian teachings, students of the Confucian Hall Middle School were detailed as attendants. At this ceremony, too, the Government was represented.

Chinese temples play an important role in the life of many of the people of Hong Kong. They are usually named in honour of one particular god, though in many temples several deities are worshipped, statues of Kuan Yin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, standing next to the shrines of local Taoist worthies such as Wong Tai Sin and Tam Kung. As Confucian ancestral tablets will often be found in another part of the same building, the three religions of China are frequently all accommodated under the one roof. Probably the oldest and one of the most famous of Hong Kong's temples is that dedicated to Tin Hau, the Queen of Heaven, at Causeway Bay; Tin Hau is the guardian of fishermen, and temples in her honour are found near most of the fishing harbours. The Man Mo Temple, dedicated to the gods of literacy and martial valour, is another equally famous one; it is in Hollywood Road and under the direct management of the Tung Wah Hospitals. In the New Territories where the traditional Chinese clan system has been preserved to a much greater extent than in the urban areas, most villages have a clan temple, which is the centre for the ancestral worship of all the families of a particular surname in the surrounding area. All Chinese temples in Hong Kong have to