Chung Yeung Festival ’08

My fellow Hong Kongers have yet another day off following last weeks National Day vacation.  Talk about the perks of working here.  These days are actually well deserved as most people work 50hr+ weeks and sometimes weekends too.  So for today’s festivities, we head up the mountains.

It is on top of these mountains that we pay our respects to our deceased ancestors. This day isn’t for mourning but more so remembrance and celebration of one’s life.

Brief history lesson here kids. This holiday falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar and is seen as an imbalance of yin and yang with the double nines. To rid the spiritual dangers people came up to the mountains carrying zhuyu plants and drank chrysanthemum wine which are believed to have cleansing qualities.

Today, tradition has evolved to drinking chrysanthemum tea, eating rice cakes with zhuyu-like decorations, and competing in hikes up to the mountains. Visiting deceased loved ones is my guess of keeping the spirits happy.