The Ap Lei Chau Hung Shing Cultural Festival peaks on Sunday with a series of traditional blessing ceremonies, coupled with lion dances, dragon boating and a parade, joined by teams from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and other parts of Asia.
A ceremony was held in the morning, with local personalities from the Ap Lei Chau community in Hong Kong Island’s Southern District making offerings to Hung Shing - a famous deity in southern China, also called the “God of the South Sea”, followed by Taoist prayers and group services.
At a following ceremony for blessings with water lanterns, local personalities placed symbolic bunches of the lotus flower into the water at Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter. About 10 dragon boats, in several groups, raced toward the main platform at an interim pier, praying for the deity’s blessings of local people.
Lion teams from local communities and other parts of Hong Kong thronged the temple by the side of Aberdeen Shelter, paying their respects to the Hung Shing deity before taking part in street performances and a parade amid loud beats of drums and gongs.
The lion dance teams were from Malaysia, Singapore, the Macao SAR and the Chinese mainland apart from Hong Kong.
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Lee Kok Thow, who led a team of overseas Chinese from Malaysia, said they were happy to join the traditional Chinese celebrations, noting that ethnic Chinese in Malaysia are also keen to carry on with the cultural traditions.
On Saturday, Malaysian teams also participated in the International High-Pole Lion Dance Invitation Competition which is part of the Hung Shing cultural activities. Teams from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region of the Chinese mainland, Malaysia and Hong Kong shared top prizes.
Chan Kwok-hwa, chief executive of the organizing committee, said the Ap Lei Chau Hung Shing Culture Festival 2025 is to promote traditional culture and the core values of showing gratitude and respect for nature. He also thanked SAR government departments and people from various fields for their support.
The Hung Ching Festival was listed in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory of Hong Kong in 2014. Last year, the local Ap Lei Chau Kai Fong Tung Hing Association organized the first major event to mark the festival around the Hung Shing Temple at the Ap Lei Chau seaside park. The temple a moderate structure of traditional “two-hall and three-bay” layout with skylight openings between the two halls.
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The Ap Lei Chau Hung Shing Culture Festival 2025 has scaled up activities, including Water Lantern Night, South District Hung Shing Bazaar, Religious Opera performances by Ming Chee Sing Chinese Opera Troupe, Lion Dance shows and competitions, traditional handicraft workshops and busking performances from March 2 to 17.
