Each year, the Tai Po Yuen Chau Tsai Shek clan and members of Wing Chuen Tong of the Chung clan hold a night dragon boat parade off Sam Mun Tsai. It takes place on the evening of the fourth day and the morning of the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, during the Dragon Boat Festival. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Office records the parade as a local tradition shared by the two communities.
From the journal
Sam Mun Tsai Night Dragon Boat Parade: Shared Prayers
Every year at the Dragon Boat Festival, two Tai Po communities hold a night water parade off Sam Mun Tsai. Their boats carry statues of deities as residents pray for safety on land and at sea.
In this district · Tai Po ↗Two communities meet on the water
Deities aboard the boats
The Shek clan brings a statue of a Song emperor aboard its dragon boat; the Chung clan carries statues of Man Cheong and Wah Kwong. The parade asks for the deities’ blessings and for the safety of the community on land and at sea. Clan members also use divination blocks and speak to the deity in Hoklo to seek instructions about the parade’s starting time, the place for “plucking the greens” and the route.
A tradition carried together
The two communities join hands to uphold the tradition. Reunion meals before and after the rituals strengthen ties within and between the clans. Listed as intangible cultural heritage, the parade is sustained through these specific acts of consultation, participation and gathering, as well as the boats moving through the waters off Sam Mun Tsai.