May festivals: Hong Kong’s Bun Festival

The Bun Festival – beginning on the sixth day of the fourth lunar month, usually late April or early May, is unique to the Hong Kong island of Cheung Chau. At midnight on the designated day for the Buddha’s birthday – also a public holiday, competitors climb giant rocket-shaped towers standing up to 20m high and which are covered with sacred rolls. The idea is to grab a bun for good luck, and the higher the bun, the greater the good fortune, so the idea is to reach the very top. As well as the climbing towers, there’s an impressive procession of floats, characters from well-known Chinese legends, stilt walkers and ‘floating children’ – children wired to metal supports tied to long poles and carried through the streets.