The Jade Emperor Festival (天公玉皇大帝誕)

The Jade Emperor Festival| Areas
The Jade Emperor Festival| Era
The Jade Emperor Festival| Date
The Jade Emperor Festival| Historical evolution
The Jade Emperor Festival| Events

The Jade Emperor Festival| Areas

Kowloon City District,Kowloon, Hong Kong

The Jade Emperor Festival| Era

1950s

The Jade Emperor Festival| Date

The ninth day of the first lunar month.

The Jade Emperor Festival| Historical evolution

Lok Fu Tiger Rock Tin Hau Temple is said to have been initially built in the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801), while the present Cide Society Tin Hau Temple was approximately established in the 1950s. Due to natural disasters and urban development, among other factors, the existing temple buildings were completed in 2002.

Yu Huang is the head deity of Taoism’s “Three Pure Ones and Four Heavenly Officials.” The belief in Yu Huang can be traced back to the worship of “Heavenly Emperor” during the Yin and Shang dynasties, with its current image mainly formed during the Sui and Tang dynasties.

The Jade Emperor Festival| Events

Lunar January 9th

On the Jade Emperor’s Birthday, Lok Fu Tiger Rock Tin Hau Temple has prepared paper clothes, incense and candle paper, vegetarian dishes, rice, tea, tangyuan (glutinous rice balls), and wine for worship. The activities can be divided into four parts: worshippers paying respects, reciting scriptures, ceremonies, and offering treasures.

Worshippers Paying Respects

In the morning of that day, worshippers will first pay their respects to the gods at the front of the temple. Stalls are set up on both sides of the temple gate to collect offerings from worshippers and sell items used for worshipping gods and towels. After paying their respects to the gods, worshippers will place ingots down and have “Tin Hau” stamped on their towels by staff members. Their names will then be marked with red paper. These towels will be placed next to scripture altars to receive blessings during recitation rituals and returned to worshippers after the ceremony.

Recitation Rituals

The scripture readers dressed in black robes usually perform music with yangqin (hammered dulcimer), suona (a Chinese double-reed horn), gongs, drums, and cymbals before conducting recitation rituals inside the temple. During the first round of recitation rituals, the head of Tsz Tak Society and staff members raise flags at a flagpole outside the temple while pasting talismans onto it.They also conduct the first offering treasure ritual. Afterwards, the scripture readers continue with three more rounds of recitation rituals, every round lasting about 20-40 minutes.Worshippers queue up to retrieve towels labeled with their names after completing the final round of recitations.

Ceremonies

While recitation rituals take place inside the temple, various community leaders conduct ceremonies outside. The ceremonies include offering incense, wine, rice, fruits, and ingots.

Offering Treasures and Transforming Treasures

After completing all recitation rituals, the head of Tsz Tak Society and staff members offer treasure silk to Fude (God of Wealth)and remove the paper clothes. They then move the collected paper clothes and ingots next to Tin Hau Temple’s kitchen for cremation.The entire ceremony for the Jade Emperor’s birthday is thus completed.