Address: Cheung Chau
Direction: In Central, go to Pier 5, and take the ferry to Cheung Chau
Cheung Chau Bun Festival is the most exciting festival that happens in Cheung Chau every year. Cheung Chau is an island around Hong Kong Island. It is a must watch event for Cheung Chau residents, broadcast locally in Hong Kong and capture attention from the world. It is also included in the list of “Top 10 Quirky Local Festival” by Time.com.
Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a local event that you won’t want to miss every year. A celebration event that normally happens between fifth and ninth days in the fourth lunar month and lasts for about a week. It has music, lion dance, drum, Taoist ceremony and the most exciting event of the festival – Contest of bun scramble.
Cheung Chau residents are so busy every year getting costumes ready, baking lots of buns, and building the tower. The tower is the key element and is used for the competition. In the contest, participants who climb to the top of the tower with all the buns on it first win. This is one of the main events that people cheer, so excited to watch and celebrate.
How did this festival start? It started around the Qing dynasty, a year from 1644 to 1911, way back in history. In that period, residents in Cheung Chau built an altar right in front of Pak Tai Temple in hope to get all evil spirits away from the island. It also has status in paradise walking around the village. These rituals stay well-kept until now even after 100 years, it is still an essential part of Cheung Chau culture and presents its heritage.
Nowadays,
locals in Cheung Chau keep the tradition of having a Bun Festival. They are all
within the close community and it is so important even those residents that
work in other places would make their way back home to join for celebration.
