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Religion and Custom

FOXX

ALL of the world's major faiths are practised in Hong Kong with complete freedom.

Here, among the communities of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, Buddhist monasteries and Taoist temples co-exist with Christian churches, mosques, and Hindu and Sikh temples. In addition, all major religious bodies have established schools which offer religious teachings besides a general education.

Traditional Festivals

Traditional Chinese festivals are occasions for family union and feasting.

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 visits and gifts 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, when gifts of mooncakes, fruit and wine are exchanged, and adults and children go into the parks and countryside at night, carrying colourful lanterns under the full moon. 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.

Buddhism and Taoism

Buddhism and Taoism, the leading Chinese religions, maintain a strong hold on the population, especially among the older folk. Ancestral worship is also widely practised as advocated by Confucianism which, though not truly a religion, teaches a moral code based on human relations.

Hong Kong has more than 360 Chinese temples. Some temples are centuries old, built by fishermen or old settlers, some are of more recent construction, while others are housed inside multi-storey buildings and cater for the spiritual needs of smaller circles of city dwellers.

All temples are required to be registered under the Chinese Temples Ordinance. The Chinese Temples Committee manages some 40 public temples and the income, from donations by worshippers, is used for the preservation and restoration of not only public temples but also privately owned temples of historical value. Most of the large temples and monasteries are open to the public.

Each temple is dedicated to one or two deities enshrined in the main hall, with side halls housing subsidiary deities. Since Buddhism and Taoism, basically two different faiths, are

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