Drums and Gongs Shake Hong Kong: Tin Hau Birthday Parade Celebration

#HongKongTraditionalFestivals On the 23rd day of the third lunar month, gongs and drums roar across Hong Kong’s districts, and the streets are packed with thousands celebrating Tin Hau’s birthday — a century-old national intangible cultural heritage that shines with tradition and faith through a grand parade. The highlight is the Yuen Long 18 Villages Parade, where 37 firecracker teams have continued the tradition since 1963. Dragons twist and turn, the Yingge dance resounds, and the lively qilin displays the village’s unity. Giant bamboo firecrackers, draped in red and decorated, resemble a moving folk art gallery. At the Sai Kung Buddha Hall’s “Great Temple,” incense has burned for a thousand years. Worshippers touch the dragon bed to pray for blessings and eagerly buy the “Pineapple Chicken” mascot, believed to peck away evil spirits and bring good fortune to homes. In Yau Ma Tei’s Temple Street, the bustling market is filled with joy. Tung Wah Group of Hospitals honors Tin Hau with a nearly 4-meter-high firecracker ritual. Outside the temple, calligraphy and sugar painting stalls blend traditional crafts with the sweet scent of ice cream trucks, instantly evoking old Hong Kong nostalgia. On Po Toi Island, the opera stage perched on a cliff, skillfully crafted from bamboo by artisans, blends with the sea and sky. The sounds of Cantonese opera drums seem to echo the fishing village’s past. From Yuen Long’s streets to the island cliffs, the parade is not just a ritual to honor the gods but a folk performance that transcends time — where old and new merge, and the prayers and lively celebrations carried by incense remain the city’s most vibrant heartbeat.