BUN FESTIVAL, Say What?

Never in a million years did I think that somewhere on earth, humans had a day to celebrate buns. But that day exists. And it exists here in Hong Kong on Cheung Chao Island. Every year at the beginning of May, thousands of people crowd onto this tiny island, eat buns, watch parades, and burn holy statues, and climb a bun tower.

Many of you may not know this because the buns in the U.S. are very different from the buns in Hong Kong, but I LOVE HK BUNS. They have a bready shell with some sort of filling inside: usually red bean, lotus, pork, or egg custard filling (by far my favorite). Most of the buns at the Bun festival are filled with lotus filling because that is the traditional, most lucky filling. All day, we were filling ourselves with delicious street food and eating buns of all kinds. I was in heaven! On this day, the women on the island work furiously to produce thousands and thousands of buns (see picture to left). All the buns are stamped with a red Chinese character "Ping An" or Serenity/Peace (see picture above).

Also on this day, there is a long parade with traditional dragon/lion dances and lots of loud drums (everything you would think a Chinese parade would be like). We caught the beginning and the end of the parade, and it was quite fun to watch.

The most exciting part of the day, however, is at midnight when the "Bun Race" occurs. In the middle of this tiny island is a bun tower that is close to 50ft. tall (see picture below of me with the tower during the day)! Many men compete in tournaments and take classes in the weeks before the bun festival to see who gets to be the lucky ones who compete on the famous bun tower on the day of the Bun Festival. The goal of the race is to scramble to the top of the tower (covered in buns) and start taking the buns off of the tower and putting them in your bag. The buns at the top of the tower are worth the most points, and the ones at the bottom are worth the least. So the men race to the top and start collecting buns in their bags until the time runs out. It is CRAZY, and thousands of people stand around the tower watching and cheering furiously. I never would have believed that a festival or race like this exists in the world, but it does...and I got to see it!

The whole day was an exciting, and long, one. I left my campus at 9:30am and didn't return home until 2am. After the bun race was over there was a mad rush to the ferry line, but we were able to make it on the first boat. If we hadn't, we would have been stuck sleeping on the island somewhere! I am definitely going back to Cheung Chao island on a non-festival day because it seems like a fun place to bike around, eat seafood, and do a little kayaking in the water. It is a charming island to say the least.