“Over a century ago, Tai Hang was a village whose inhabitants lived off of farming and fishing. A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival a typhoon and then a plague wreaked havoc on the village. While the villagers were repairing the damage, a python entered the village and ate their livestock. According to some villagers, the python was the son of the Dragon King. The only way to stop the havoc which had beset their village was to dance a fire dance for three days and nights during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. The villagers made a big fire dragon of straw and stuck incense into the dragon. They lit firecrackers. They danced for three days and three nights and the plague disappeared.” – Quoted from Discover Hong kong website.
The people of Tai Hang no longer fish or farm for a living, but they still perform the fire dragon dance on the three days that straddle the Mid-Autumn Festival. The event involves 300 performers, 72,000 incense sticks and a 67-metre-long dragon producing a spectacle of fire, smoke and dynamic fury as it dances and winds its way through the narrow backstreets of Tai Hang.
Fire Dragon Dance at Tai Hang (大坑舞火龍)
Address: Tai Hang, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (Location Map)
Phone : +852 2577 2649
How to get there : MTR Tin Hau Station, Exit A1. Cross King’s Road and turn right. Walk straight to the second junction on the left to enter Tung Lo Wan Road, which leads to the Tai Hang area.
Stock Photo ID : hkdigit-20050919-193136 (flickr), hkdigit-20050919-193519, hkdigit-20050919-214219
More Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance Photos :
Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance 2006
Fire Dragon Dance Noisy Night
Tam Kung Festival – Dragon Dance
Tin Hau Festival – Dragon Dance
Tam Kung Festival – Lion Dance
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