Even age-old customs change over time. Family reunion dinners and giving lai see are the few that Chinese households here still uphold to celebrate the Lunar New Year. But local traditions are better preserved among New Territories communities, and the walled village of Fanling Wai practices some of the most unusual and elaborate celebrations, including a scramble for auspicious rooster feathers.
Fanling Wai marks the festival with two days of communal celebrations called the Tai Ping Hung Chiu, starting on the 15th day of Lunar New Year, which falls on Monday this year. People gather outside the village wall to pray for peace and good luck for the village, which was settled about 700 years ago by the Pangs, one of the five largest clans in the New Territories.
While some rituals have been simplified over the years, 'we try our best to preserve the traditions', says village chief George Pang Chun-sing, 53, who co-ordinates the festivities with the help of village elders.
'The Lunar New Year atmosphere in Hong Kong is fading away. Half the indigenous villagers have migrated overseas, so if we don't preserve these customs and maintain a strong New Year spirit, they won't return to the village and it will be hard to unite everyone.'
Villagers reckon Fanling Wai has held Tai Ping Hung Chiu rites for several hundred years, although no one is sure exactly when they began. The customs have a cultural value that Hong Kong, as a cosmopolitan city, should treasure and preserve, says Pang, an engineer. 'Although we don't have documents or records of how festivities were done, a group of elders have helped organise the celebrations every year.'
Tai Ping Hung Chiu brings the community together, with more than 100 villagers helping in the organisation, Pang says. In the past few years, Fanling Wai has spent up to HK$300,000 on the festive rites.