Bun Festival in Cheung Chau

Bun Festival Parade - the "floats" are little children who appear to be suspended in the air - it's amazing how they accomplish this. 

With Cheung Chau Island's annual "bun festival" falling on Buddha's birthday, a national holiday, we realized the crowds going by ferry to Cheung Chau would be huge. We left at 7:00 AM with Elder and Sister MacBeth, who were excited to see this cultural phenomenon. We met up with Elder and Sister Valentine (evacuated from Nepal) and Elder and Sister Coffey.

Our hour-long ferry ride to Cheung Chau cost just a couple of dollars. Sister MacBeth was our little "tour guide" as she had read up on this festival and had brought a map. She pointed out the "dragon holes" in some of the Hong Kong buildings on the way there (buildings built so that dragons can have access to the water by going through the holes - see pictures below), and explained some of the traditions she had been reading about,

When we arrived, we had clearly beaten the crowd. Within a few feet of the pier was a Chinese shop-owner who informed us he had graduated from BYU. He gave us some tips on seeing the parade that would start at 2:00 (we were there by about 9:00).

The rest of the story can be seen in pictures below. By parade time, there were 14 of us sitting or standing on a tiny platform of about 5' X 2' - a pretty intense crowd. Waiting for the parade to start, Laraine saw some people walking with shaved ice in their hands. She wanted me to ask them in Cantonese where they bought them. Instead, I taught her how to say it. As soon as I started this little tutoring class, the Chinese couple next to me sat up straighter and looked over at us, very startled. Then they laughed because it was so funny to hear Americans speaking their language. This started a conversation and friendship, as they confirmed what I was teaching Laraine. We then talked about their family etc. I invited them to come to our visitor's center in Wan Chai to hear more about the church. Later on, we got separated from them a bit but I looked over and caught the husband's eye. He was eating a fish ball and motioned as if to offer me some. I declined. Then a few minutes later he walked over and said he would go buy me some. He brought back fish balls for us. What a nice couple!

A funny thing happened earlier as we had started to wait for the parade. I saw something that was deep fried on a stick and went to the shop owner to ask what it was. She explained that it contained "dau fu" (tofu) and "syuh jai" and I told her I wasn't familiar with syuh jai. She looked amazed and started to laugh. She then told passersby that I had told her I didn't know what syuh jai was. Everyone laughed. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was, and I was embarrassed that I didn't know. Then as I walked away with this food, it dawned on me that syuh jai is potato. I had never eaten or ordered potatoes in Hong Kong, so I had forgotten the word. Now I realized why the laughter. It was like a Chinese person coming up and saying in pretty good English, "What is 'rice'?"