Cheung Chau Bun Festival

What it is

Cheung Chau is a small Hong Kong island with a fishing past, and this is its biggest event of the year. In Cantonese the festival is called Cheung Chau Tai Ping Qing Jiao, which puts it among the Da Jiu rites, large Taoist ceremonies of sacrifice and thanks. Hong Kong's Da Jiu festivals are mostly kept by rural communities, either each year or after a set gap of years, in some cases as long as sixty. Cheung Chau's comes round annually and is the best known of them. It draws tens of thousands of visitors from Hong Kong and overseas, and it falls on the same day as the local marking of Buddha's Birthday.

Origins and history

The common account places the festival's beginning in the eighteenth century. Plague had struck Cheung Chau and pirates were raiding it, so the story goes, until fishermen carried an image of their patron god, Pak Tai, along the island's lanes and the danger passed. Villagers are also said to have dressed as other deities and walked the island to drive evil away. Hailufeng people were the first here to honour Pak Tai, and Cantonese and Tanka families came to do the same. In time every language group on the island joined the observance. What began as a thanksgiving has become a much broader show of Chinese custom.

The bun towers

Three towers of bamboo, each about sixty feet tall and closely packed with buns, are raised in front of Pak Tai Temple. They give the festival its name. The climb itself comes from a southern Fujian and Chaozhou practice called qianggu, in which food set out for lonely spirits is snatched up. Young men once raced each other to the top, and a bun from higher on the tower was thought to carry more luck to the family that won it. That race ended after 1978, when a tower gave way and over a hundred people were injured. The towers still stand each year, built in the traditional way with bamboo scaffolding.

Food and the vegetarian days

On three days of the festival the entire island gives up meat. The seafood restaurants Cheung Chau is known for keep to it, and the local branch of an international fast-food chain swaps beef for burgers made of mushrooms. The buns come from one bakery that has supplied the festival for some four decades and turns out more than sixty thousand of them. Late on the final night they are lifted from the towers and handed round the village, where families stay awake to share in what they see as the week's stored-up good fortune.

Today and change

Processions remain central. An image of Pak Tai leads the way, gongs and drums sound to keep evil spirits off, lion and dragon dancers move through the streets, and children in costume are fixed inside steel frames high above the crowd, dressed as figures from legend and from the present day. Parents count it an honour for a child to take part. The climbing is what altered. After the 1978 accident the government stopped it, and islanders missed it. A Hong Kong cartoon film, My Life as McDull, turned that loss into a story, and on 15 May 2005 the event came back, with twelve trained climbers and a single steel-framed tower whose buns have been plastic since 2007.

How Cheung Chau Bun Festival is kept

The week begins with religious rites and Chinese opera on the island. Three of the seven days are vegetarian for everyone. A procession then moves through the town, headed by an image of Pak Tai, with drumming and gongs, lion and dragon dances, and costumed children carried above the crowd inside steel frames. Three bun-covered bamboo towers stand before Pak Tai Temple. Close to midnight on the last night, the King of the Ghosts is burned in paper form and tall incense sticks are lit. The buns come down and are divided among villagers, who celebrate late.

When and where

The date follows the lunar calendar: the fourth month, on its eighth day, which lands in April or May. It is kept every year and runs for about seven days. The same day is the local celebration of Buddha's Birthday, so the two always fall together.

Its home is Cheung Chau, an island of Hong Kong, and the full festival belongs to that island alone. It is the most famous of Hong Kong's Da Jiu rites, which are largely rural affairs. Visitors travel from Hong Kong and from overseas. The sources add that related folk customs may also exist in Taiwan, Sichuan, Fujian and Guangdong.

What Cheung Chau Bun Festival means

For the fishing families who began it, the festival was a request for protection from plague and pirates, and Pak Tai, lord of the north and god of the waters, is still at its heart because he is trusted to bring calm seas and full nets. Tin Hau, guardian of those who work the sea, is honoured alongside Kuan Yin and Hung Shing. The buns carry their own meaning, since the higher a climber reached, the more fortune the household expected.

Days Cheung Chau Bun Festival is marked

Cheung Chau Bun Festival dates: 2026, 2027, 2028

Questions people ask about Cheung Chau Bun Festival

See also

HalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageChristmas treeA decorated evergreen or artificial tree placed indoors to mark the Christmas season.DiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.Christmas EveThe evening before Christmas, marked by church services, family meals, and gift preparations across Christian cultures.

Good reading and sources

• Cheung Chau Bun Festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.