The Cheung Chau Bun Festival dates back more than 200 years and is one of the most colourful of local festivals. So it is a pity that one of the highlights is still banned.
The three-day event features elaborately dressed children and ornate floats, all of them parading past a Taoist temple dedicated to the god Pak Tai. What started as a ritual to thank Pak Tai for saving island inhabitants from bubonic plague has become, over the years, an elaborate festival playing on themes of purification, appeasement of hungry ghosts and appeals for continued protection and fortune. Features added over time - lanterns guiding spirits from the graveyards to the temple feast, priests reading the village's fortune, dragon dances and Cantonese opera - highlight the island's long history as a home to fishermen and once-notorious pirates.
The festival attracts locals and tourists alike. But to the event's organisers, nothing has been quite the same since the midnight scramble to the top of 15-metre bun towers was banned after 1978, when a tower collapsed beneath the weight of too many climbers, injuring more than 100 people.
There must be some way to revive the climb - and to combine safety with fun. The shame is that it has taken 26 years for the government to agree that the climb can return, but now that it has promised to do so for next year's festival, preparations can begin.
It is too bad no agreement was reached in time to allow the climb to take place this year, even after organisers offered concessions such as pre-selecting climbers and limiting the heights to which they could go. They also called in a structural engineer to examine the bamboo scaffolding, offered to place safety mats underneath the climbers, and promote the climb as a demonstration rather than a race.
These compromises indicate the earnestness of those who want to see the climb return. They also make an excellent basis on which to begin planning for next year's festivities.
