Hong Kong Island, Causeway Bay, Tin Hau Temple.

The Tianhou Temple was built in the early Qing Dynasty by the Hakka Dai Shifan, and was called the "Red Incense Burner Temple in Yanchuan Bay" at that time.

At that time, Hong Kong was a fishing port, and Hong Kong Island was the place where the most fishermen who went out to sea to fish lived, so the fishermen here were different from the Tan people in Tai O, who never went ashore in their lives, and they would come to Tin Hau Temple every year on New Year's Day to worship Tin Hau Niangniang.

With the passage of time, a hundred years have passed, the once a small fishing port has gradually developed into a town, the growth of population, and people from all provinces come here, and gradually New Year's Day worship Tianhou Niangniang, from the blessing of fishing at sea, derived from all walks of life, even if it is an ordinary person, will come to Tianhou Temple on this day to pray for Tianhou Niangniang to bless the coming year smoothly and well-being.

The earliest main deity of the Tin Hau Temple was Tin Hau Niangniang, but in 1842, after the opening of Hong Kong (opening the port: the establishment of a foreign trade port), there were other gods in the Tin Hau Temple, Guanyin Dashi, the god of wealth Zhao Gongming, and the iron-faced selfless Bao Baobao Qingtian.

...

Early morning.

Today is New Year's Day, according to the local customs of Hong Kong, it is necessary to worship the early day of the Queen of Heaven, and pray for a smooth and healthy year.

Every year, there will be a group of people in the Tin Hau Temple, who come to line up to compete for the first incense before dawn in the early morning.

But now that more than ten o'clock has passed, although the number of people in line has increased unabated, most of them have an attitude of praying for blessings, rather than having to compete for the first incense of the Tin Hau Temple on New Year's Day.

It is a tradition to burn incense to worship the queen of heaven, and it can also be said to be a tradition to come to the temple to watch plays, jugglers and lion dances.

In 1921, the Hong Kong Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce was established, at that time it was called "Hong Kong Chaozhou Bayi Chamber of Commerce", in order to quickly open the reputation of the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, the then president Chen Dianchen invested 10,000 silver dollars in the name of the Chamber of Commerce, and renovated the dilapidated Tin Hau Temple at that time.

At the same time, on the New Year's Day of the following year, Ma Shi, a well-known Cantonese opera singer in Guangdong at that time, was hired to come to Hong Kong to perform a play. For the fishermen on Hong Kong Island who were poor at that time and only wanted food and clothing, this was simply a good thing that could not be found with lanterns. (Ma Shizeng and Xin Ma Shizeng are not the same person, the latter is named Deng Yongxiang, because of imitating the Cantonese opera style of the famous Ma Shizeng, he was given the nickname of Xin Ma Shizeng)

In those years, there were very few entertainment methods, and watching theaters was the mainstream, but theaters cost money to watch dramas, but some people invited them to watch plays for free, and there were many people who came.

At that time, more than thousands of people gathered around the Tin Hau Temple to watch Cantonese opera performances.

At that time, Chen Dianchen, the president of the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce, saw this situation, and once again asked people to go back to Foshan, Guangdong Province to invite a group of lion dance teams and juggling troupes to perform in the Tin Hau Temple for ten days and ten nights.

Many fishermen and natives praised the pride of the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce, and sold the fish or some specialties to the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce. Even if the chamber's competitors paid a penny more, these fishermen did not choose to sell their seafood to those people. Because the Tin Hau Temple, which blesses the safety of their fishermen, was renovated at the expense of the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce, they have to make a small action as believers.

Today, the president and members of the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce continue the mission of the previous generation to explore the Hong Kong market, and regularly hire many famous opera artists from Hong Kong to put on the opera stage in the area of Tin Hau Temple on New Year's Day every year.

With the increasing number of people from the mainland provinces coming to Hong Kong, more and more people know how to juggle these things.

Therefore, in addition to opera, there are also blowing and pinching, dragon and lion dances, juggling, shaking empty bamboos, returning to the cave of the three immortals, climbing poles, and playing monkeys......

And with the re-opening of Hong Kong, many chambers of commerce have gradually emerged, and the activities of the Tin Hau Temple on New Year's Day are not only organized by the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce.

No, along the street, there are seven or eight stages built alone, and above each stage, there will be a banner with black letters on a red background, and each banner will write which chamber of commerce is the one that paid the money.

What are the "Guangdong Chamber of Commerce", "Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce", "Chinese Manufacturers' Association", "Chinese General Chamber of Commerce", "General Chamber of Industry", "China Import and Export Chamber of Commerce"......

All kinds of chambers of commerce, simply varied, eye-catching, from the beginning of the first step into the temple road of Tin Haau, almost all of them were attracted by the high bamboo rows and banners of each chamber of commerce, along the way it was like coming to the advertising gathering place.

But these are actually nothing to the public, and the other party pays to invite so many people from the troupe, juggling, dragon and lion dances, and it seems acceptable to play a signboard of the Chamber of Commerce.

...

Around half past ten.

Huo Yaowen took Huo Tingting, cousin Zhang Wanjun, and her sister's classmate Lu Suzhen, and took a bus to two streets away on Tin Hau Road and got off.

No way, the weather is very good today, the sun is shining, and it is much warmer than the previous two days, so there are many citizens who come to participate in the Tin Hau Temple to celebrate New Year's Day. Further on, there are police officers and traffic police maintaining the order of the crowd, and vehicles cannot enter at all, so they can only enter on foot.

In my memory, Huo Yaowen is not the first time to come to Tin Hau Temple, in the past few years, he would bring his younger sister to Tin Hau Temple to watch plays and watch juggling.

"Brother, you see there are monkeys over there! I haven't seen anyone playing monkeys for many years, but I didn't expect to see them today!"

"Brother, look at the new Ma Shizeng on the stage, Grandma likes the Cantonese opera he sings the most, I knew that I should have called Grandma to come along!"

"Brother, you see that man is breathing fire, my God, isn't his mouth hot?

"Brother, you see that man is piercing his neck with a spear, my God, this is terrible, doesn't he hurt? Won't the spear pierce his neck?"

Facing Huo Tingting, who was chattering non-stop and like a duck, Huo Yaowen was not impatient, but kept smiling and looking east and west behind her.

It has to be said that with the development of later generations, there are very, very few traditional festivals like this, and it is not worth the trip to be able to see so many folk juggling performances now.

Along the way, Huo Yaowen has also seen a lot of fun and interesting performances, such as the bamboo pole climbing in front of him now. A man who was 1.6 meters thin and more like a bamboo pole, bare-chested, climbed to the top of a thick bamboo pole with a few rubs, which was faster than that of a monkey, which provoked the crowd of onlookers around him to applaud and applaud.

Zhang Wanjun and Lu Suzhen, who were following Huo Yaowen, when they stopped to see this person's wonderful performance, they also subconsciously clapped and applauded like the people around them.

"Brother, there's something for sale over there, let's go over and have a look!"

Huo Tingting may be tired of watching these vaudeville operas, and suddenly noticed that near the entrance of the Tianhou Temple, there was a group of people who were setting up stalls to sell things, and they were also holding the hands of their cousins Zhang Wanjun and Lu Suzhen, and walked straight to the front.

Huo Yaowen, who was lagging behind, smiled bitterly twice, and hurriedly followed.