Chu Tai Sin Jiao Festival: Sea Safety and Blessings

Description

Every year during the fifth lunar month, fishermen in Hong Kong gather for the Chu Tai Sin Jiao Festival, a ritual dedicated to Chu Tai Sin, a revered deity associated with medicine, guidance and safe voyages. In Aberdeen, Hap Sing Tong organises ceremonies that blend prayer, chanting and symbolic offerings to seek blessings for calm waters and protection at sea. The rites include cleansing, scripture chanting, opening and closing the seal, pacifying water and land ghosts, throwing divination blocks and sending off the deities.

For fishing communities, the festival is both a spiritual observance and a reflection of shared maritime heritage. Recognised in Hong Kong’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory in 2014, the tradition continues to preserve a distinctive local belief system while connecting present-day communities to longstanding sea-faring customs.

Photo courtesy of Intangible Cultural Heritage Office.