Zhongyuan Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Yu Lan Sheng Hui gathering of Hong Kong is the product of two sets of festival customs—Buddhist and Daoist—coming together on the same night. Buddhists hold a Yulanpen (Ullambana) assembly on this day, originating in the old legend of Mulian saving his mother; Daoists call it Zhongyuan, the day when the Earthly Official pardons sins, standing alongside Shangyuan, when the Heavenly Official bestows blessings, and Xiayuan, when the Water Official relieves distress. The Chaoshan people of Hong Kong number more than 1.2 million; feeling their longing for home deeply, they have expanded this single night into a month-long series of religious assemblies, during which they keep vegetarian diets, chant scriptures, and repay the gods with operatic performances—festivity and solemnity taking turns. Over more than a hundred years, such elements as the burning of street clothes, shenggong opera, peace rice, and competitive bidding for blessed objects have each become fixed in form, making this the largest-scale folk gathering with the widest neighborhood participation in all of Hong Kong.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhongyuan is a term used in Chinese Daoism. Daoism calls the fifteenth day of the first, seventh, and tenth lunar months Shangyuan, Zhongyuan, and Xiayuan respectively. Shangyuan is the day when the Heavenly Official bestows blessings, Zhongyuan the day when the Earthly Official pardons sins, and Xiayuan the day when the Water Official relieves distress. Buddhism calls the "Zhongyuan Festival" the "Yulanpen Festival" (Ullambana), derived from the Buddhist story of "Mulian Saving His Mother." This festival is widely popular among the Chinese people. The Yu Lan Sheng Hui gathering, also called the Yulan Festival, is popularly known as the Zhongyuan Festival, the Ghost Festival, the Magu Festival, or the Half of the Seventh Month (i.e., the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, or in some places the fourteenth); it is a day for worshipping ancestors and consoling lonely spirits. The Chaoshan-origin population of Hong Kong numbers approximately 1.2 million. The Chaoshan people living in Hong Kong feel their longing for home and remembrance of their ancestors deeply; the month-long Zhongyuan Festival held once a year, at which the Yu Lan Sheng Hui gathering is staged, has a history of more than one hundred years and is the most solemn and largest-scale folk activity in all of Hong Kong. The Yu Lan Sheng Hui gathering encompasses traditional folk culture and religious customs while also embodying the history of overseas Chinese, immigration, and the development of Hong Kong; it transcends the nature of a single traditional cultural activity and bears the character of a local traditional cultural activity of Hong Kong. The main activity of the Yu Lan Sheng Hui gathering is the worship of ancestors, including such elements as the burning of street clothes, Yulan taboos, Yulan shenggong opera, the Daya King figure, peace rice, and competitive bidding for blessed objects. The venue is set in a spacious place such as a park, square, or sports ground. All of Hong Kong is divided into dozens of neighborhood venues where the gatherings are held; each venue has a charity platform for feeding lonely spirits, a ritual altar, an opera stage, a Daya King platform, and a shrine. The Daya Ye (Lord Daya) figure on the Daya King platform, about four meters high, is the presiding deity of the charity to lonely spirits. Dragon flags stand around the venue, embroidered with phrases such as "Guotai Min'an" (peace and prosperity for the nation), "Fengtiao Yushun" (favorable weather), "Taiping Shengshi" (halcyon times), "Guangjie Shanyuan" (widely forging good affinities), and "Enze Tongzhan" (sharing the same grace). The opera stages of the neighborhoods feature mainly Chaozhou opera (Chaoju) performances. There are also diverse cultural and artistic activities and displays of handicraft works, attracting countless visitors from home and abroad. During the Yu Lan Sheng Hui gathering, many commercial firms generously donate funds, grain, oil, and artworks to help bring the gathering to a successful conclusion. When the grand gathering ends, an auction of blessed objects is held. The so-called blessed objects are all things offered on the spirit table to worship the deities, including gold and silver ornaments, jade, pottery, flowering plants and bonsai, and food and alcoholic drinks. The buyers come in multitudes, all pious men and women; people believe that having the fortune to bid for a blessed object, large or small, is an act of public-spirited goodness.
Raising the altar for the jiao rite
Each neighbourhood builds an altar, invites monks and priests to recite scriptures, register the names of the unclaimed dead and open the festival properly.
The Great Master altar and its presiding figure
A four-metre image of the Great Master presides over the altar as the deity who relieves the unclaimed souls, forming the ritual centre of the site.
Burning clothes for the wandering dead
Paper garments and money are burned on open pyres through the night to clothe the ownerless souls, the oldest and most delicate scene of the festival.
Merit plays and Teochew opera
Mostly Teochew opera is staged day after night to reward the gods, alternating with ritual chanting, and serving as the neighbourhood's gathering place.
Distribution of the peace rice
Rice and banquet fare are offered and then shared with the public, turning the rite from the salvation of the dead toward the protection of the living.
The auction of blessed goods
At the close the goods that stood on the altar are auctioned, from gold and jade to potted plants and food; bidders treat the purchase as an act of charity.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The framework of the venues rests on associations rather than villages. Today, Chaozhou-affinity associations and neighborhood welfare associations in the various districts of Hong Kong take turns as hosts; the venues are borrowed parks, squares, or sports grounds, where charity platforms for lonely spirits, ritual altars, opera stages, the Daya King platform, and shrines are erected. A Daya Ye figure about four meters high sits enthroned on the platform, presiding over the charity to lonely spirits. Dragon flags are raised around the venue, embroidered with auspicious phrases such as peace and prosperity for the nation and favorable weather; the opera stage is staffed mainly by Chaozhou opera troupes, and once the gongs and drums sound, the people of an entire street gather round. All of Hong Kong is divided into dozens of neighborhood venues, each run on its own and worshipping its own deities, yet they are held in succession within the same month, forming the annual festival calendar of the whole city.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhongyuan Festival · Zhongyuan Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The strength of the gathering lies in combining charity with festivity: commercial firms donate money, grain, and goods, and pious men and women bid on the blessed objects, with the proceeds going to charitable funds; a single religious assembly is thus both an act of faith and an occasion for mutual aid among fellow townspeople. Dance drama, acrobatics, and handicraft exhibits are interspersed throughout, drawing large numbers of outside visitors. The real difficulty today lies not in the ritual protocol but in the fact that permits for venues, for the fire of the street-clothes burning, and for erecting tall structures have all grown increasingly tight; only through the associations' year-by-year more painstaking rotation of hosting duties is this assembly barely held together from falling apart.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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