“This is my ninth time,” an elderly villager, born and raised in Kam Tin, told me. His voice carried an accent I couldn’t quite place, and he spoke with great pride in being in his nineties. At over ninety years old, he had witnessed the Kam Tin *Gratitude Rite* nine times — a rare blessing for a festival that takes place only once every decade.
Once every decade, Kam Tin comes alive with the *Gratitude Rite* (酬恩建醮), the oldest *Taiping Qingjiao* festival in Hong Kong. This year marks its 34th edition, running from December 13 to 19 in Shui Tau Village, where members of the Tang clan have built an elaborate bamboo structure in front of the historic Chow Wai Kung Study Hall to host a week-long ceremonies, performances, and communal gatherings.
The festival’s origins date back more than 300 years to the Qing dynasty, when local officials helped coastal residents return home after the Great Clearance. To express their gratitude, Kam Tin villagers established the Chow Wai Kung Study Hall in 1684 and began holding this decennial rite to honour their benefactors, pay respect to ancestors, console lost souls, and pray for harmony within the community.
Throughout the week, the quiet residential village will transform into a vibrant cultural hub filled with Taoist rituals, processions, Cantonese opera performances, and lion dances. The bamboo structures, built entirely by hand using time-honoured joinery techniques, are attractions in their own right.
Although I live quite far away, I’ll be returning on December 13 to witness the day-long festivities. One of the Tang clan members also invited me back on the evening of the 18th for the *祭大幽*, a ceremony where paper offerings are burned to guide lost souls back to the heavens. He cautioned me more than once not to call out anyone’s name during the ritual, in case the gods mistake them for souls to be taken skyward too. 😱