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Buddha birthday is celebrated in Hong-Kong

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Travel Articles >> Events >> Holidays Travel Articles >> Locations >> Asia >> Hong-Kong

The ritual celebration for the birthday of Buddha takes place in Hong-Kong and this day is a public holiday in the country. In the local temples there are various ceremonies, such as lustration of the Buddha statue with tea. A huge amount of believers came to the distant ancient monastery Po Lin at the Lantau island, where the larges bronze monument of sitting Buddha is located in the open air.

The solemn ceremonies, religious rites and people's festivals take place also at the nearby located islands. So, at the tiny picturesque island Chengchau takes place also the colorful "buns festival", which traditions are already a couple of centuries old. When several thousands of tourists come there on the ferries, this quiet fisherman's village becomes a loud place. The performances of opera artists and masters of Kung-Fu and dragons, the carnival procession can be seen around the temples.

During the celebrations people should eat only vegetarian food. The locals are offering sweet buns sanctified by the monks.

The culmination of the fest is the evening contest that supposes an ascent to the specially constructed tower. During the given time the participants should collect as much round buns hung at the tower as possible.

This merry contest has been prohibited in 1978 when the tall bamboo construction fell down and injured about 100 people. Since that time it has not been organized for 27 years and has been revived three years ago. For the security reasons the tower has now a metal frame and the amount of the participants has been reduced to twelve and they were supplied with insurance ropes. Also, against the traditions, the buns have been changed to plastic copies.

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Article Submitted On: May 12, 2008