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Festival

Things could have gone much worse for the cowhand, as is often the way when one steals from demi-gods, but he was forced only to marry the maid. The union was a happy one, until the Gods ordered Chih Nu back to heaven to continue her weaving and decreed the couple could only meet once a year.
The cowhand eventually died, and became immortal with the aid of a magic cow. To prevent him rejoining his divine bride the Queen of Heaven created the Milky Way, then placed Chih Nu and the late cowhand on opposite sides of her creation. The lovers can see each other but continue to meet only once a year when magpies, inexplicably flying up from Earth, form a bridge between them.

Since the nineteenth century young girls, lovers, wives and widows have been celebrating this festival at Lovers Stone Garden (Bowen Rd, Wan Chai) by climbing up the nine metre rock there and praying for husbands and sons. The stone is set in a steep landscaped area, dotted by a strange collection of red painted images, tinfoil windmills, burning incense and religious porcelain figures.

Also in August is the creepy Yuen Laan, the Festival of Hungry Ghosts (Sunday 17th). On the seventh moon the gates of the underworld are thrown open, allowing the ghosts and spirits within the freedom to roam mortal earth. Unlike family ancestors, 'jo sin', ghosts are those souls whose descendants have died out, leaving an untended grave, or who never had a proper funeral. They are the dangerous 'unprivileged' dead, who are placated by great offerings of spirit money, food and gifts. In traditional Chinese villages pyres will burn into the night with these paper gifts, sending them skyward, while most of the occupants spend this inauspicious night indoors, fearing the roaming ghost may take away their souls.

Star-crossed lovers, capricious gods and a spot of rock climbing combine in this months Maiden's Festival (Saturday 9th). Despite sounding like a desperate nightclub promotion, the mythical basis for the festival is well over a thousand years old. It tells of a cowhand who stole the clothes of a weaving girl, Chih Nu, as she bathed. He was shocked to catch a glimpse of her naked while doing so, further horrified to discover that she was the daughter of The Kitchen God. Things could have gone much worse for the cowhand, as is often the way when one steals from demi-gods, but he was forced only to marry the maid. The union was a happy one, until the Gods ordered Chih Nu back to heaven to continue her weaving and decreed the couple could only meet once a year.

The cowhand eventually died, and became immortal with the aid of a magic cow. To prevent him rejoining his divine bride the Queen of Heaven created the Milky Way, then placed Chih Nu and the late cowhand on opposite sides of her creation. The lovers can see each other but continue to meet only once a year when magpies, inexplicably flying up from Earth, form a bridge between them.
Since the nineteenth century young girls, lovers, wives and widows have been celebrating this festival at Lovers Stone Garden (Bowen Rd, Wan Chai) by climbing up the nine metre rock there and praying for husbands and sons. The stone is set in a steep landscaped area, dotted by a strange collection of red painted images, tinfoil windmills, burning incense and religious porcelain figures.

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