Thursday, June 17, 2010

tuen ng festival : 端午節



yesterday was the fifth day of the fifth moon.
on this day way back a few thousand years ago a man named qu yuan committed suicide at a local river apparently due to political reasons (!!!)
the legend has it that that when his followers found out what he had done they flocked to the river on their dragon boats and began beating their drums to scare away the fish nibbling on qu. they then threw cooked rice into the water so qu wouldn't go hungry into the after-life. unfortunately the fish ate the rice so the locals decided to wrap the balls of rice in bamboo leaves.

this day of remembrance is known in hong kong as the tuen ng festival (端午
) or the dragon boat festival.
huge dragon boat races are held throughout hong kong at various beaches and rivers with locals and tourists alike sampling handmade rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves.
i ummed and ahhed (spelling) about heading down to stanley beach where there is a real carnival atmosphere. realized it was not the best idea with a newborn in my arms, let alone the thought that we would be out in the 32 degree heat jostling for a view with the other 100,000 or so "spectators".
instead we chilled out at home drinking coffee and eating pound cake.

hope you don't mind me sharing some photos i took back in 2008.
looking back at these i see my photography skills are a bit shady but at least this will give you some idea of what i'm going on about.













7 comments:

Kenny Mah said...

Stanley Beach was relatively placid the last time I visited - maybe I should have visited during festival time... lots of action! ;)

world of sekimachihato said...

* Life for Beginners
believe me, fla...placid is good.
i love stanley on a quiet sunny afternoon sampling some yummy food and sipping wine in the sun.
just hate waiting for the bus back to the city...

pascale said...

懐かしい〜

Kenny Mah said...

Oh, the bus rides are fun too - the drivers go really fast for such a small bus! :P

world of sekimachihato said...

* pascale
懐かしいでしょー。
今年も見に行きたかったけどやっぱり新生児がいるとちょっとムリだなー

world of sekimachihato said...

* Life for Beginners
oh you must be talking about hong kong's minibus. the minibus drivers are crazy!
although i ride them i'm always a bit freaked out as they crash pretty often. i so don't wanna die in a speeding minibus!

Kenny Mah said...

Yeah that's right! I took a minibus to Stanley Beach from one of the MTR terminals... It was a fun ride!

But I sure as heck held on for my dear life! LOL

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