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RELIGION AND CUSTOM

Martial Valour, the Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road on Hong Kong Island, run by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, a charitable organisation, is also very popular and well-known.

There are five major festivals in the Chinese calendar, all of which are statutory public holidays. First and foremost is the Lunar New Year, when gifts and visits are exchanged between friends and relatives, and children receive 'lucky' money. The Ching Ming Festival in the springtime provides an opportunity to visit ancestral graves. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon in early summer with dragon boat races and by eating cooked rice wrapped in lotus leaves. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth moon. Gifts of mooncakes, fruit and wine are exchanged, and adults and children go into the parks and countryside at night carrying colourful lanterns. The Chung Yeung Festival is on the ninth day of the ninth moon, and is celebrated by large crowds climbing hills in remembrance of an ancient Chinese family's escape from plague and death by fleeing to the top of a high mountain. Family graves are also visited on this day.

Christian Community

The Christian community

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Roman Catholic and Protestant is estimated to number almost half a million people, comprising more than 50 denominations and independent groups.

The Protestant and Roman Catholic churches enjoy a good fellowship. The Roman Catholic Diocese and the Hong Kong Christian Council have a Joint Committee on Development which plans joint action in areas of mutual concern, with official representa- tion on each other's committees. Church leaders issue joint pastoral letters and various bodies of both groups co-operate in a number of mission and service projects. All local religious broadcasting in both Chinese and English over Radio Television Hong Kong is planned and produced in association with two ecumenical committees. They serve the station in an advisory capacity. An important event for the total religious community took place in April. It was a courtesy visit by a delegation from Peking, led by Mr Ren Wuzhi, Director of the Religious Affairs Bureau of the State Council of China. The group visited all the major religions in the territory.

Roman Catholic Community

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The Roman Catholic Church has been present in Hong Kong since the territory's early days. The church was established as a Mission Prefecture in 1841 and as an Apostolic Vicariate in 1874. It became a diocese in 1946.

In 1969, Francis Chen-peng Hsu was installed as the first Chinese Bishop of the Hong Kong diocese, and he was succeeded in 1973 by Peter Wang-kei Lei. The present Bishop, John Baptist Cheng-chung Wu, was consecrated in 1975.

About 267 250 people, or five per cent of the population, are Catholics. They are served by 350 priests, 71 brothers, and 738 sisters. There are 56 parishes and 54 centres for Mass. The majority of the services and other religious activities are conducted in Chinese, with a few churches providing services in English.

The diocese has established its own administrative structure while maintaining tradi- tional links with the Pope and with other Catholic communities around the world. The assistant secretary-general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference has his office in Hong Kong.