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The Bun Festival is an event that is held annually on Cheung Chau, an outlying island of Hong Kong. This year, I went there to witness the first time this traditional local festival.
Cheung Chau is about half an hour by fast ferry from Central. It was in the past inhabited by fishermen, but today, it has become a recreational site during weekends when urban Hong Kong people go there for holidays. There is a beach on Cheung Chau, and there is another sight which is a cave said to be the hiding place of pirates in the past.
The Bun Festival is held for a week around April and May each year, where towers of buns are set up near Pak Tai Temple. The hightlight of the festival is the Crystal Parade (太平清醮) in which constumed children standing on stilt, among others, march through the narrow streets of Cheung Chau. After that, there is a competition where some participants will climb up a bun tower and try to take as many buns as possible. (This competition has only been resumed in recent years due to safety concerns). It is said that the origin of the festival involved
People and People
Could I see anything?a plague several hundred years ago and people marched to drive away bad spirits. This had become a tradition later.
I went to Cheung Chau to see the Crystal Parade the first time, but unfortunately many other people were doing the same. As a result, the streets were jammed and I could only watch the parade from a distance and behind the crowds. And it was terribly hot outside.
But I felt good going there. At least I learnt that there is something valuable in my home city which at first sight may not seem obvious to us.
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