Mid Autumn Festival (fire dragon dance in Dakeng)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Mid Autumn Festival

Applicant: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Project No.: 453

Project No.: X - 5

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Hong Kong

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Protection unit: Dakeng Fangzhong Welfare Association

Mid Autumn Festival (fire dragon dance in Dakeng)

Applicant: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Fire dragon dance in Tai Keng is a kind of folk custom activity held every year to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival in Hakka villages along the north coast of Hong Kong Island in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is said that in the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), there was a plague in Dakeng. Villagers made a fire dragon to patrol the community, set off firecrackers to drive away the plague, thus forming the custom of dancing fire dragon.

The activities will be held three nights before and after the Mid Autumn Festival. The residents of Dakeng make new fire dragons every year. On the night of August 14 of the lunar calendar, the fire dragons are enlightened in the lotus palace where Guanyin is worshipped. After that, they toured all the streets of Dakeng in a clockwise direction for three consecutive nights.

On the evening of August 16, the "Universiade" ceremony was held. The fire dragon paraded around the community anticlockwise for a week, then danced to the seaside and threw it into the sea, known as "dragon returns to heaven". Over the past decades, Dakeng has become a part of the bustling city, and fire dragon dance has become a mid autumn Festival ceremony shared by the general public in Dakeng community. Under the auspices of "Dakeng Community Welfare Association", this heritage will continue to be inherited.

Fire dragon dance plays an important role in carrying forward the fine tradition of the Chinese nation and enhancing the sense of community identity and cohesion.