This week saw two public holidays in Hong Kong:
- Thursday for National Day where 60 years of communism was celebrated. Seems odd given the ‘one country, two systems’ that China espouses for HK means that HK has never been a country where communism was actively practised over this period. This should continue to be the case up to 50 years from the date of the handover. After that, who knows?
- Saturday for mid-Autumn Festival.
I like a parade as much as anybody but the show of military might seemed to be a little over the top to me. I would have preferred to see dragon dances and more traditional forms of celebration to mark the 60 years of the Peoples’ Republic of China.
The mid-Autumn Festival was more to my liking even though it didn’t mean a day off work for us this year. Mooncakes and fruit baskets had been distributed over the past two weeks from our suppliers at work. People had been making plans for what they were going to be doing that evening ranging from visiting family to send off lanterns into the sky, through to a street festival and in our case, a beach party.
Around 7pm we went to our local beach. The Palm Beach Watersports Centre had done a fabulous job of hanging light globes to mark the path to the Centre. The path is a concrete one through bush so it’s almost impossible to see at night and early on winter mornings. As we approached the entrance, the light changed to a series of lanterns lining the path. The same style lantern was scattered all through the Centre and created a gentle glow which in the camping area (they use teepees) was outshone by a bonfire with a huge effigy (about two storeys high) standing guard.
Throughout the evening, bands played, people danced, ate and drank and kids ran around and fell asleep. Later in the evening, some of the local people in red loin cloths, with their bodies painted, danced around the fire. It was reminiscent of Aboriginal dancing and even featured an instrument similar to a didgeridoo which we decided to call a didgeriboo given it was made of bamboo.
The evening ended for us when the lanterns were sent off into the sky.
The next two months are what we consider to be the nicest weather-wise as the humidity and temperature begins to drop and the slide into Ugg boot weather begins.
* Thanks to The Doors for the title to this post.