Cheung Chau Bun Festival: A celebration for people, deities, and ghosts

From a cure to a deadly plague to a regulated cultural spectacle, here’s everything you need to know about the Cheung Chau Bun Festival.

The seamless blend of modern dynamism and rich tradition gives Hong Kong its unique charm. While temples and historical buildings break up rows of towering high-rises in the centre, the outlying islands are where you’ll find culture beyond concrete constructions. Held in Cheung Chau, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival is one of Hong Kong’s best known traditional festivals. While the Bun Scrambling Competition and Carnival usually take centre stage, there’s much more to the festivities than meets the eye. As Honeycombers’ resident culture expert, I’m here to unpack the rich cultural tapestry of this traditional festival.

Cheung Chau Bun Festival: A deep dive

An overview of traditional Hong Kong holidays

Did you know that traditional festivals in Hong Kong are divided into three categories: zit (節), daan (誕), and jiao (醮)? Zit best aligns with what we typically think of as a “festival” and celebrates seasonal changes. An example would be the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節; zung cau zit), which heralds harvesting season and autumn’s arrival. While zit also involves deities and ancestors, it’s primarily a celebration for (and of) the living.

Daan are holidays that celebrate a deity’s birthday, such as the Buddha’s Birthday, which is known as fat daan (佛誕) in Cantonese, and even Christmas.

Finally, we have jiao. This is the category that the Cheung Chau Bun Festival falls under. While zit and daan are one-day occasions, a jiao is much more elaborate and can take around a week to complete, with preparations starting months in advance. What’s most fascinating about jiao is that it’s not just for deities, ancestors, and the living – hungry ghosts also join the party!

Da jiao (打醮): A cleansing ritual

A festival that restores peace

Anthropologist David Faure describes jiao as a “community exorcism” – and it’s a pretty good way to put it! The idea of cleansing is embedded in jiao’s full name: taai ping cing ziu (太平清醮). While taai ping means peace, cing carries the double meaning of clear and clean. Hosting a jiao is a monumental undertaking, where the whole village or community gives thanks to ancestors and deities, make offerings to wandering ghosts, and gather in festive cheer while casting away negative vibes.

A time for opera

To make sure everyone feels included, there are specific activities tailored for people, deities and ancestors, and even ghosts! The first three groups are treated to Cantonese opera and san gung hei (神功戲; plays that give thanks to deities).

Ghostly entertainment

Ghosts are given food and paper offerings that help them onto the afterlife in two zai yau (祭幽; “ghost sacrifice”) sessions – hence “exorcism.” An important figure here is the “ghost master,” daai si wong (大士王). Acting as bouncer and security at a jiao, daai si wong keeps hungry ghosts from troubling the living and ensures they don’t linger after the jiao has ended.

Jiao on Cheung Chau: Plague killer turned bun festival

The timing and frequency of a jiao vary depending on the village or clan hosting it. Because of this, each jiao has its unique story of origin. On Cheung Chau, the festival dates back to the mid-Qing Dynasty. The commonly known version of the story is that land- and boat-dwelling communities on Cheung Chau organised a jiao to rid a deadly pandemic, with festivities centring around the water deity Pak Tai. After a three-day ceremony, the plague miraculously vanished. To thank the deity for his blessings, Cheung Chau communities made the jiao an annual occasion.

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Jiao: A divine affair

Given deities’ sacred status, they receive the VIP treatment at a jiao. Not only do they get their own “spectating area” with prime views of festivities, people also escort deity statues from temples to festival grounds on a mini sedan chair! On Cheung Chau, this happens three days before the jiao and the entourage consists of water deities Hung Shing Kung and Tin Hau, as well as martial deity Kwan Tai.

Jiao has to take place during an auspicious time, traditionally chosen by poe divination, where two crescent-shaped wooden pieces are tossed to seek a “good” date from a deity. However, Cheung Chau folks only use it to appoint a festival lead, since in 2001, poe divination caused a scheduling conflict with Buddha’s Birthday. To avoid further clashes, the community sought and received permission from Pak Tai himself through poe divination to fix the date to the eighth day of the fourth lunar month – a move that’s testament to their deep connection to the deity!

Where did the buns come from?

The iconic bun towers have their roots in a Chiu Chow ritual called coeng gu (搶孤), where people seize offerings made to deities, believing them to be endowed with their blessings. On Cheung Chau, this manifests as the famous Bun Scrambling Competition, where residents climb the towers to grab for “peace buns” (平安包) in hopes of bringing good fortune and well-being to themselves and their families.

Since the towers toppled under the weight of climbers in 1978 and caused significant casualties, the government banned bun scrambling until 2005, where it returned as a regulated competition. Now, not only are the bun towers properly reinforced and safer to climb, but all Hong Kong residents can apply to participate in this exhilarating event!

Piu Sik Parade: Tour of luck and children

Another highlight of the Cheung Chau Bun Festival is the Piu Sik Parade (飄色巡遊; “floating colours parade”). In an impressive feat of balance and engineering, young children dressed in elaborate period costumes are cleverly positioned on a hidden supportive frame, so they appear to be “floating” above the parade crowd as they traverse the streets of Cheung Chau! As children often dress up as mythical characters, the parade is thought to bring luck to every corner of the island.

Despite being an iconic event of the festival, the Piu Sik Parade was actually only added to the itinerary after Chiu Chow residents returned from a visit to Fo Shan in the 1920s, where they first witnessed the custom among Fo Shan natives and decided to bring the spectacle back to Hong Kong.

All about the buns: Today’s jiao on Cheung Chau

Today, apart from jiao rituals and ceremonies, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival also includes a buzzing carnival to entertain festival-goers from other parts of Hong Kong and abroad. You can expect a variety of game booths, food stalls, and souvenir shops selling iconic Cheung Chau memorabilia.

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