~ August ~
Mid-Autumn
Festival
The Mid-Autumn festival is one the the major festivals of the Chinese calendar and one of the loveliest nights of the year. Part of the celebrations commemorate a uprising against the Mongols, when rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper and embedded them in cakes, then smuggled to compatriots. The Mid-Autumn festival was especially a women's occasion, be right and suitable for the essentially female moon. A special table was set up facing the moon with dishes of round fruit such as apples, oranges, peaches and of course, moon cakes. Rice, wine and tea would be offered as well together with a few suits of paper clothing and many ingots of spirit money in gold and silver paper. Recently, those rites are less commonly performed. During the festival people eat special cakes filled with a mixture of ground lotus and sesame seeds or dates and sometimes also the yolk of a duck egg. Shops sell speical decorations and brightly coloured Chinese paper lanterns. , it has become the custom to take the children to high vantage points such as Victoria Peak, to light langerns and enjoy the moon.
Monkey’s
Festival
Monkey, the naughty, cheeky fellow who successfully takes on the Establishment, either human or divine, and gets away with it. His brilliant achievement are recounted in an old story called The Journey to the West, describing the adventures of the monk, Yuen Tsong who was sent to India to bring back the Buddhist scriptures. The epic journey was really made. Yuen Tsong is aided by an assortment of supernatural creatures under the general intendence of the Lord Buddha through Koon Yam.The Monkey was dominating this motley group, having stormed into Heaven itself and stolen the Peaches of Immortality, had made himself indestructible and acquired miraculous powers. He possessed a magic iron weapon small enough to tuck behind his ear. This weapon could in a twinkling become a massive cudgel too heavy for anyone else to lift. He also had the ability to change his form at will. His Buddhist title, given him for his services to Yuen Tsong, is Buddha Victorious in Strife. The festival takes place in a large playground of a low-cost housing estate in Kowloon. At one end of the playground is a tiny temple, packed on a kind of reredos over tha altar, are sculptures of all the protagonists in the story of the Journey to th West and a great many more Buddhist figures besides. Monkey manifests himself to believers by entering into the body of a medium and speaking though him on the 1st and 15th days of every moon. A man goes into trance and takes on monkey-like characteristics immediately, twitching, jumping, scratching, grinning. Then, together with his "interpreter", he holds a clinic to which come people with a variety of illnesses. In turn, they explain his case to Money, then diagnoses the disease, prescribes treatment and gives advice through the mouth of his medium. The "interpreter" has always to be present to write down what is said since the words of the medium utters are not easily understandable. Though the cliemtele is large, the fees paid are very small, just a few cents handed over in red packet. It does not do it for money at all. It is an ordinary god's birthday party with special "extras"! The "extras" include an display of supernatural powers, carried through the actions of three or four mediums in trance and an indeterminate number of devout believers. THe mediums dressed in yellow and red, demonstrate their invulnerability by sticking knives through their cheeks, cutting their tongues with razor sharp swords, washing in boiling oil and climbing a ladder made of knives with the sharp edges turned upwards. Finally, followed by believers, they run several times barefoot across a bed of red hot charcoal. Most are unmarked and only small blister can be found. Blood from the sword cuts is splashed onto slips of paper. Then, they are used as talismans against sickness and evil of all kinds.
Birthday
of Confucius
Confucius was word in the period of Warring States which was a great time of great political turmoil and intense intellectual activity as learned men argue about different ideals of ethical and political philosophy. Confucius developed the idea that goverment could best be obtained if the governors were trained in ethical philosophy and in an attempt to achieve such a goal he put his trust in education. The Chinese placed the control of the government in the hands of meritocracy recruited by public examinations. The work of the great teacher became the basis of traditional Chinese education. There is no doubt that Confucius is revered as the greatest of all Chinese sages. Confucius's system of ethics and politics was founded on the principle of virtue which should characterize the behaviour of the good and just man. He kept searching for an enlightened prince, willing to put his ideas into practice. But, failing to find one. He settled down to teaching and writing and ultimately through his book wielded a far greater influence.
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