Adventure 2: A Visit to the Temple

At the beginning of the (chinese) new year hundreds (or maybe thousands) of Buddhists flock to the temples to pray for themselves and/or other family members.






Why?
According to Chinese tradition, if you are born under year of the ox you are automatically prone to bad luck since Ox is the animal of the year (I'm not sure why it does not specify on the sign, maybe it is a well-known fact and doesn't need to be stated?) I know that many of you are oxes and although I did not participate in the worshiping because I am not Buddhist and don't have to believe this in the first place, I did think of all of you! :) And I wish you good luck!






Instead of worshiping I decided to explore. The following are photos of the adventure for the day:









1. This is not just a random crowd of people, in fact it is a line winding back and forth waiting for the mini bus that will take them up the mountain to the temple, waiting time from here was about an hour, total waiting time: 1.5 hrs. The Gods are definitely testing both their sincerety and patience. According to the locals, there has never been as many people going to the temple like this before.
2. Finally, after an hour and a half plus the 20 mins bus ride, we arrive at The Yuen Yuen Institute in the Tsuen Wan District (if I'm not mistaken, this is also part of or close to the new territories of HK).
3. First, people will bow a few times while holding giant burning incense and then plant them in that alter thing you see here.
4. And then, hold all that plus a bag of peanuts and candy...
5. And enter this temple (this is a replica of Beijing's Temple of Heaven)
6. Inside the temple, there are 60 of these statues representing the the different combinations of animals and "earthly branches and celestial trunks. One must worship certain gods depending on the animal that the person you are worshping for is born under (while holding the things mentioned in 4. Also, one must plant 1 incense (non-lit in case of fire hazard) to each of the 60 gods. After all that, all things seen in 4. is taken to the furnace and burnt which concludes the worshipping for health and good luck for those clashing with the god of the year. Also concludes the adventure for the day. YAY!