Bun Festival of Hong Kong

There are hundreds of islands in the region of Hong Kong in East Asia. Some of them are very small while others are quite large. On one of those islands, which is less than an hour away from Hong Kong’s main island and named Cheung Chau, is famous for the festival it throws every year in spring, in April or May.

The name of the festival is Cheung Chau Bun Festival and it lasts about a week. The name comes from the small, round pastries filled with the sweet paste that people eat on this holiday. Cheung Chau is known as a fishing village, but thousands of people visit during festival time. They come to celebrate and they enjoy eating the island’s famous buns which are all stamped in red with the Chinese character that means “peace”.

During the celebration, people of the island organize a giant parade. The huge crowd starts walking from Cheung Chau’s big temple called Pak Tai Temple and continues around town. Children get very excited and they love dressing up like divine and legendary Chinese characters. Drummers, opera singers and dancers that are in dragon and lion dresses also walk in this parade.

For a couple of days before the parade, the people of Cheung Chau only eat vegetarian food, but right after the parade, they start to eat meat. It’s their tradition. The butchers reopen their doors once the procession is over and there’s a great feast.

The Bun Scrambling Competition is accepted as the real highlight of the festival. It happens at midnight. As a part of the competition, many towers covered in plastic buns are built in the centre of the island. The aim of the contestants is to climb up the towers as fast as possible and throw as many buns as they can over their shoulders and keep them in their backpacks they carry on their backs.

Hong Kong’s Tourism Board senior manager Mason Hung explained that this is the biggest traditional celebration in Hong Kong. He also thinks that it has been so well preserved.

Because one of the towers fell down, the organization was put on hold from 1978 to 2005. There are some new rules like the structures need to be made of steel instead of bamboo. Moreover, it was open to everyone, but now only 12 participants can join in. They must also be trained in the basics of safe climbing.

At the end of the competition, tasty buns are given out to everyone and the boat back to Hong Kong’s main island works all night long.

Adapted from Readworks’ website