15th May 2005

 

Held on Buddha's birthday (and also coincidentally my mothers' Chinese birthday) is the famous Cheung Chau (長洲) Bun Festival (太平清譙, literally "Peace Tower").

 

Braving the heat, humidity and the masses of people we set off to the island of Cheung Chau to check out the Bun Festival.   Folklore tells us this festival was originally a ritual for the fishing communities to pray for safety from the pirates.  Mostly forgotten, now days it includes a bun snatching competition and various parades of people and lion dances.

 

Anyways, we decided to arrive early to get a good vantage spot for the parade and to take in some miscellaneous sites around the island.  This included the traditional three 20 metre bun towers, the Tin Hau temple, and of course the bun tower that is used for the new and improved Bun Snatching competition.  "New and improved" due to a serious accident in 1978 which promptly put the Bun Snatching on hold until this year with only 12 qualified competitors allowed to scramble up the bun mountain (in a rock climbing harness) to snatch the higher fortuned buns.

 

The main event is the floating parade (飄色巡遊), which goes around the island.  It's famous and unique because it includes children dressed as famous characters hoisted up in the air and balanced with only one leg for extended periods of time.  Interspersed between them are various lion dances to add to the festivities.