10 minute read
What’s On Hong Kong
by icchkmacao
by
Lia Campiglio
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Born in a small countryside town of Piemonte (Italy), Lia Campiglio then left home and moved to Venice to study Oriental languages (Mandarin) at Ca' Foscari University. After living and studying abroad in Barcelona (Spain), Beijing and Nanjing (PRC), in 2012 she decided to leave her Country and work in a competitive market such as that of Hong Kong. She is currently working at the Italian Cultural Institute of Hong Kong. While organizing cultural events related to Italian culture, arts and lifestyle she enjoys exploring the wonders of South East Asia.
Around the world, public holidays are generally days of celebration, like the anniversary of a significant historical event or a religious celebration. Holidays can land on a specific day of the year or follow other calendar systems like the Lunar Calendar and fall on different dates each year.
There are many public holidays celebrated in both Hong Kong and Italy… Which are the most famous ones? Which are their origins and traditions? From gifts and traditions, let’s have a look at the upcoming ones and enjoy these famous celebrations like locals do, wherever you are!
4 April - Qingming Festival (清明節)
The Qingming Festival or “Grave-Sweeping Day”, also referred to as the “Pure Brightness Festival”, pays respect to ancestors and celebrates the warming weather of spring. It is a time for the families to come together and honor the past by visiting and maintaining the burial sites of loved ones and ancestors with a spirit of celebration that includes space for both reflection and renewal. This festival is one of the two big annual festivals designated for the dead - the other is the “Hungry Ghost Festival” in autumn.
The holiday is celebrated 15 days after the spring equinox - either 4, 5, or 6 April in a given year - when things are meant to be clean (ching - 清) and bright (ming - 明)As the festival occurs and spring blooms, it is generally considered an auspicious time.
It is said that this festival was originally held to commemorate a loyal man named Jie Zitui living in China during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC) who cut a piece of meat from his leg to save his hungry lord who was forced to go into exile. After coming back, the lord forgot Jie Zitui, who retired on a mountain with his elderly mother. To find him, the lord ordered to set the mountain on fire; unfortunately, Jie Zitui and his mother were found dead. To commemorate him, the lord erected a temple and ordered that the day Jie died was Hanshi Festival (Cold Food), the day that only cold food could be eaten. The next year, when the lord went to the mountain to pay tribute to Jie, he found willows revived, so he gave instructions that the day after Hanshi Festival was to be the Qingming Festival. Later, the two festivals were combined as one. The most visible activity revolves around tomb-sweeping: the ritual cleaning of gravesites to show respect to a family’s ancestors. People visit their graves, refresh their tombstones, make offerings of food, tea, or wine, burn incense and joss paper - offerings can range from simple paper banknotes to elaborate paper crafts shaped like clothing, cars. Burning ceremonial joss paper is meant to care for ancestors in the afterlife and send them the luxuries they lacked while living. Once tomb sweeping is complete, families picnic and spend the afternoon enjoying outdoor activities, like flying kites. People believe that this custom can bring good luck and eliminate diseases. Some people place willow branches on gates and front doors: this custom will ward off wandering evil spirits during the festival. The traditional festival food is sweet green rice balls (qingtuan - 青 團)- made of a mixture of glutinous rice powder and green vegetable juice and stuffed with sweet bean paste -, but this is rarely observed today. As the holiday focuses on honoring family ancestors, the result is an emphasis on homestyle family favorites.
4 & 5 April - Pasqua and Pasquetta (lunedì dell’Angelo)
Easter celebration or Pasqua symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Christian religion. Historically, the Easter holiday was marked on each Sunday after the first full moon in the spring equinox.
weekend long to Easter Monday, or Pasquetta. From north to south, all the cities throughout the Peninsula organize processions, religious rites, holy representations depicting the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, sagre or food fairs, and folkloristic traditions that center around the Passion of the Christ. Statues of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary are paraded throughout the cities while participants carry olive branches singing religious songs; Easter is also a time to attend mass.
It is also a time to have fun with family and friends by painting hard-boiled eggs and collecting chocolate Easter Eggs - sorry, the Easter Bunny does not exist in Italy! -. No Italian Easter holiday is complete without sampling seasonal delicacies such as Colomba pasquale, a traditional sweet Easter bread, the counterpart of Christmas specialties panettone and pandoro..
An Italian proverb says Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi: “Christmas with your family, Easter with whomever you want”), thus people usually spend their Easter Monday, also known as Pasquetta, enjoying the fresh spring weather while picnicking or BBQing with family and friends in the countryside, at the beach or in the mountains.
25 April - Liberation Day
Italy’s Liberation Day, or Festa della Liberazione, is a national public holiday marked by ceremonies and historic re-enactments to commemorate both the end of the fascist regime and the Nazi Germany occupation during World War II, and the victory of the Resistance in Italy.
Since the International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day, on the 1st of May falls less than a week later, people often take a ponte to have an extended vacationfrom April 25 through May 1.
The actual date - largely symbolic and chosen by convention in 1946 -, was the day of the year 1945 when the Committee of National Liberation for Northern Italy (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the insurgency through a nation-wide radio announcement encouraging a popular uprising against the Nazi occupation and Fascist regime. This announcement led to the capture and death of the Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, three days later.
Many cities organize parades, marches, and other events to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the fight to free their country, however, the most elaborate celebrations occur in the capital city of Rome. The Italian president pays a visit to the Ardeatine Caves mausoleum, where 335 Romans were killed by Nazis in 1944, and the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force known as Frecce Tricolori flies over Rome coloring the sky with green, white, and red, as a sign of homage on the anniversary of the Liberation Day. to honor Saint Mark, the city’s patron saint, through a gondoliers’ regatta and a procession to Saint Mark’s Basilica; and the traditional Festa del Bocolo, or “blooming rose”, a day when men present the women in their lives (girlfriends, wives, or mothers) with a red rosebud or bocolo.
Bella Ciao, an Italian protest folk song created by workers to protest against the harsh working conditions in the paddy fields of North Italy, was modified and adopted as the anthem of the Italian resistance movement during World War II. Even today, the lyrics continue to be sung worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance.
19 May - Buddha’s Birthday (佛誕)
Buddha’s Birthday is one of the largest Buddhist festivals and it is a national holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, which falls in April or May on the Gregorian calendar. Due to the prevalence of Buddhism in Hong Kong, the government made this day a public holiday starting from 1998.
It’s a time for everyone to reflect on the Buddha’s teachings and work on bettering themselves; the main purpose is to remind people to use the Buddha’s wisdom to purify their minds. On this occasion, local temples and monasteries are buzzing with activities including group chanting and prayer sessions, kung fu, and vegetarian cooking demonstrations; special ceremonies and liturgy are held in honor of the Buddha, too.
The most important temple is the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island - which is considered a holy place for Buddhists. Its Tian Tan Buddha is one of the tallest outdoor bronze sitting Buddhas in the world. Most notable is the public Buddha bathing ceremony, in which worshippers pour fragrant water on the Buddha statue. This is done to purify the mind with the help of Buddha’s wisdom and, according to legend, when Buddha was born, nine dragons came from the sky and spat water to bathe him.
2 June - Italian National Day
Each year on the 2nd of June Italy celebrates the Festa della Repubblica, the Italian National Day, that commemorates the institutional referendum held by universal suffrage in 1946, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government, republic or monarchy, following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism. Italians chose to become a Republic and as a consequence, the Italian royal family, the House of Savoy, were sent into exile.
On the feast day, official ceremonies are held throughout the national territory. The ceremonial event organized in Rome includes the solemn flag-raising ceremony at the Altare della Patria and the tribute to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the deposition of a laurel wreath by the President of the Italian Republic. After the execution of the Il Canto degli Italiani - best known as
Inno di Mameli -, the Frecce Tricolori cross the skies of the city. The ceremony continues in the afternoon with the opening of the gardens of the Quirinale Palace and with musical performances and military parades by all the Italian Armed Forces.
14 June - Tuen Ng Festival (端午節) or Dragon Boat Festival (龙舟節)
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Tuen Ng Festival, occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar. Three of the most widespread activities conducted during this festival are drinking realgar wine - an alcoholic drink made from Chinese yellow wine dosed with powdered realgar -; making and eating zongzi with family members and friends; racing dragon boats. People traditionally wrap glutinous rice dumplings (zongzi) in bamboo leaves, forming a pyramid shape. After wrapping in leaves, the dumplings are tied up with reeds and then immersed in boiling water until cooked through.
The traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (c. 340 - 278 BC) who lived in the Chinese kingdom of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty. When the king decided to ally with the powerful state of Qin, Qu Yuan was banished for opposing the alliance. After Qin captured the capital of the kingdom of Chu, Qu Yuan decided to drown himself in the Miluo River. Local people raced out in their boats to save him, in vain. The festival’s distinctive dragon boat races are a re-enactment of the frantic attempts of the fishermen who rowed out to save him. When his body could not be found, fishermen dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan’s body; this is said to be the origin of zongzi.
In recent years, dragon boat racing has become a festive and exciting sporting event that involves teams of paddlers racing long wooden boats in the sea or the rivers. The races include both expats and locals and teams of men and women contestants. The boats are usually decorated with elaborately carved dragon heads and tails and feature prominently a big traditional Chinese drum at the rear of the boat. The drummer on the boat beats loudly on the drum to control the paddlers’ speed. The dragon boat races in Victoria Harbour and Stanley beach are the biggest competitions; along with them, there are also smaller competitions at other locations including Aberdeen, Sai Kung, Sha Tin, Cheung Chau, Discovery Bay, and Tai O.
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