ENG-1969 — Page 286

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RELIGION AND CUSTOM

secular life there. 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 the Colony. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth moon, when gifts of mooncakes are ex- changed 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.

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 claims, seem uncongenial to the Chinese spirit. Nevertheless Christianity is rooted deeply and growing rapidly in Hong Kong.

Its roots go back indeed to the earliest days of the Colony. St John's Cathedral was founded in 1842, and established as a Cathedral by Letters Patent from Queen Victoria in 1850. A rep- resentative of the London Missionary Society arrived at about the same time. St Andrew's Church was consecrated in October 1906. There is an annual increase of four per cent in communicant church membership. New churches and chapels in housing estates and satellite towns are constantly being built. It is estimated that there are now 261 churches and chapels in the Colony. The number of Christians in Hong Kong is estimated at slightly over 400,000— about 10 per cent of the total population.

While about 12 churches in the Colony hold services in English, the great majority of the congregations are Chinese speaking, mostly Cantonese. There are some churches using Kuo-yu (Mandarin). Christians in Hong Kong are notable church-goers. The major