Tai Hang Fire Dragon

This Mid-Autumn Festival I paid a visit to Tai Hang (大坑), or Big Water Channel, for the annual Fire Dragon Dance.

View large image The evening was hot, humid and soon to be filled with clouds of incense smoke.

I was fortunate enough to have secured a press pass and was thus unimpeded by the crowds behind the barriers, so I set about capturing the preparation of the Fire Dragon. After the speeches were made the organisers spiked the head and body of the 220-foot-long dragon with thousands of burning joss sticks. My eyes began to water from the smoke.

When the dragon was ready, boisterous, rhythmic drumming and the clashing of cymbals heralded the beginning of the dance, during which the dragon chased two balls of fire through the streets. This was no slow-motion festival; I had to run to keep up while trying to avoid dozens of photographers and TV-cameramen all jostling for position.

The legend behind the festival began in 1880 when Tai Hang was nothing more than a tiny Hakka village occupied by a few hundred farmers and fishermen. One autumn evening a python entered the village and attacked the livestock. The villagers killed the serpent only to discover the next morning that its body had mysteriously disappeared.

Soon after a typhoon struck Hong Kong island; in its aftermath an outbreak of plague killed numerous people in the village. Then a village elder had a dream in which Buddha instructed him to perform a Fire Dragon dance and set off firecrackers for three consecutive nights during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The villagers complied; sulphur was released during the ritual which ended the plague and saved the village.

Tai Hang residents have performed the Fire Dragon Dance every year since to commemorate both the calamities and the cure. Having experienced the remedy first-hand, I came away smelling like one giant joss stick.

I guess that means I'll be safe from the plague until the next Mid-Autumn Festival.

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