Coinciding with Mid-Autumn Festival is the unique Fire Dragon Dance – a spectacular ritual guaranteed to be one of the most extraordinary events you will ever witness. The 67-metre-long dragon is studded with thousands of burning joss sticks that at night produce an incredible spectacle of fire, smoke and dynamic fury as the dragon wends and dances through the backstreets of Tai Hang. This year the dance has been extended along Tung Lo Wan Road to create more viewing space. With traditional flag dances and local participants banging drums and cymbals and juggling joss sticks alongside the dragon, it’s a visually and aurally stunning experience!

The three-day event commemorates a series of mishaps that befell Tai Hang in 1880 culminating in a plague breaking out in the village. Appearing in the dream of a village elder, Buddha instructed the villagers to light firecrackers and perform a fire dragon dance for three days and nights during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Sulphur from the firecrackers dispelled the plague and the ritual has been repeated annually ever since.

Event: Fire Dragon Dance at Tai Hang (大坑舞火龍)
Date: 05 Oct., 2006
Place: Tai Hang (大坑), Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Equipment: Canon 30D, 17-40mm 4.0L

Related posts:

1. Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance
2. Tam Kung Festival – Dragon Dance
3. Tin Hau Festival – Dragon Dance
4. Noisy Night
5. Tin Hau Festival – Lion Dance
6. Tam Kung Festival – Lion Dance
7. Day before Tin Hau Festival
8. Dragon Lantern
9. Frederick Ma Si-hang Resigned
10. wtc more dance countdown

Quoted from Discover Hong kong website:

“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.”

Event: Fire Dragon Dance at Tai Hang (大坑舞火龍)
Date: 19 Sept., 2005
Place: Tai Hang, Causeway Bay

Related posts:

1. Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance 2006
2. Tam Kung Festival – Dragon Dance
3. Tin Hau Festival – Dragon Dance
4. Noisy Night
5. Tam Kung Festival – Lion Dance
6. Dragon Lantern
7. Tin Hau Festival – Lion Dance
8. Frederick Ma Si-hang Resigned
9. wtc more dance countdown
10. Project Dance