This year Yuen Long Public has won the championship titles in both junior (Form One to Three) and senior (Form Four to Seven) categories. Last year the school's senior team came second.

Teacher Wong Lee How-king said the competition gave the students 'hands-on' experience in research, interviews, analysis and presentation.

'Each team was assigned a teacher who helped with organisation, information gathering and guidance on the field trip,' Ms Wong said.

The school sponsored the senior and junior teams with $1,600 and $2,000 respectively.

Each winning team received a trophy and $5,000 cash.

The junior team's choice of theme was the festival 'Birthday of Hau Wong', which required a trip to the outlying islands to collect first-hand information. Their winning project was a well researched, clearly presented study of the festival's origin and its significance to the community.

The senior team, on the other hand, seemed more independent in the way it went about collecting facts for its topic, the Tau Chiu festival, for which the students interviewed residents of Yuen Long, Kam Tin and Ha Tsuen.

Team members Shing Chun and Yiu To-ying said they were fortunate to have a fellow member who belonged to the Tang clan in Yuen Long, which made contact with the villagers much easier.

'Our friend's father is a village head, and he arranged for us to talk with senior members of the clan and some veteran Chinese opera artists who had vivid memories of the festival when they were young,' To-ying said.

'It's very difficult to find written information about the festival, so interviews were an important source of information.' Armed with slides, videos and cassette tapes, the 10-member team produced an in-depth study focusing on the origin, evolution, rituals and future directions of the Tau Chiu festival. The students said the residents of these three areas observe the festival with a traditional vegetarian feast and a street parade.

'A lot of youngsters are still very supportive of the festival, but with growing Western influence their interest is gradually waning, resulting in fewer festive celebrations in the future,' To-ying pointed out.

Lam Man-fai, vice-chairman of the Urban Council Museum Select Committee, said the winning projects in all four competitions will be displayed at the Hong Kong Museum of History in April.

'We received a record 54 projects from 37 schools this year, and all were of high quality,' Mr Lam said.

'The students who took part will now have a much greater awareness of our local festivals.' RESULTS Junior Division: Champion - Yuen Long Public Secondary School; Second - Ma On Shan Tsung Tsin Secondary School; Third - Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial College; Merit Award - Marymount Secondary School. Senior Division: Champion - Yuen Long Public Secondary School; Second - DMHC Siu Ming Catholic Secondary School; Third (tie) - Buddhist Wai Yan Memorial College and TWGHs Wong Fut Nam College.