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Monkey God Festival (Sep/Oct) A mischievous god originating from a novel during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Monkey was also immortalized in a BBC2 series back in the 1970s. An outcast from Taoist heaven, he gained Buddhist immortality by escorting Tang Gan Zang on his pilgrimage to the West. In Sau Mau Ping in Kowloon, a shanty town temple recreates the ordeals by fire and stabbing which the Monkey God suffered when other gods tried to kill him. These are performed by a possessed medium who runs over hot coals and climbs a ladder of knives. Chung Yeung (Feast of Ancestors) (Sep or Oct) Also known as Autumn remembrance, respect of ancestors is crucial to this festival, similar to Ching Ming when people go to their ancestor’s graves to clean them. Because of a legend, it is a popular day for hiking, especially to high altitudes. Mid Autumn (Mooncake) Festival (Sep or Oct) The festival commemorates a 14th-century uprising against the Mongols, when rebels wrote the call to revolt on pieces of paper that they hid inside cakes to smuggle to their compatriots. During this time, piles of cakes are sold outside bakeries, stuffed with a mixture of ground lotus, egg yolk and bean paste, and kids carry paper lanterns in the shape of dragons or rockets and light them from a high peak, while gazing at the huge autumn moon. The best place to be during this festival is in a public park in the late evening. International Fireworks Display Contest (Macau) (Every Sunday in Sep) The largest event of its kind in the world, this contest sees participants flying in from all over the world to light up the sky with pyrotechnic wizardry, with displays at 2100 and 2200 over Sai Van Lake.
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