Towering traditions: Hong Kongs centuries-old Kam Tin Jiao Festival returns
Once every decade, villagers in Kam Tin build a nearly 30-metre (100-foot) tall bamboo structure – large enough to hold almost half the capacity of the Hong Kong Coliseum – to stage rituals and Cantonese opera performances for an audience of residents, deities and spirits alike. The colossal structure, adorned with vibrant plaques and a…
Once every decade, villagers in Kam Tin build a nearly 30-metre (100-foot) tall bamboo structure – large enough to hold almost half the capacity of the Hong Kong Coliseum – to stage rituals and Cantonese opera performances for an audience of residents, deities and spirits alike.
The colossal structure, adorned with vibrant plaques and a flag, is the largest of its kind in Hong Kong and serves as the centrepiece of the HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) Jiao Festival organised by the indigenous Tang clan of Kam Tin. The five-day, six-night celebration will begin on Saturday evening.
“Throughout the generations, [this festival] reminds us that we must repay our gratitudes. It also unites our clan, as during every Jiao festival, everyone comes back,” said 66-year-old Tang Ho-nin, chairman of the Kam Tin Rural Committee and chief organiser of the festival.
Clansmen of the organising committee told the Post that the festival had been preserved in its original form for 340 years, out of respect for their ancestors and the desire to unite families across generations and across the world.
The Tang clan welcomed the government’s recent efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage, which they saw as an opportunity to share their festival with other residents in the city.
“We have been doing this [festival] all along, but now there’s a new name for it being intangible cultural heritage,” said Tang Wing-hong, 68, a village chief and member of the organising committee.
