Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance 大炕火龙

During my recent visit to Hong Kong, the timing coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival. A quick Google showed one of the events not to be missed in Hong Kong is the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance. On the Mid-Autumn Day, I brought my Nikon D700, 50mm F1.8 & 17-35mm F2.8 to Tian Hou MTR station (Causeway Bay) where Tai Hang is located. Shooting this event was very challenging, due to huge crowds, constant action/movement, low light and the smoke from the incense sticks.

For the three nights straddling the Mid-Autumn festival, visitors can see the spectacular Tai Hang fire dragon dance in Hong Kong. It's a 67-meter-long 'fire dragon' that winds its way with much fanfare and smoke through a collection of streets located in Tai Hang, close to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Fire dragon dance started in 1880 when Tai Hang was a small Hakka village of farmers and fishermen on the waterfront of Causeway Bay. This custom has been followed every year since 1880, with the exception of the Japanese Occupation and during the 1967 disturbances.

According to local legend, over a century ago, a few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a typhoon and then a plague wreaked havoc on the village. While the villagers were repairing the damage, a python entered the village and ate their livestock. According to some villagers, the python was the son of the Dragon King. A soothsayer decreed the only way to stop the chaos was to stage a fire dance for three days and nights during the upcoming mid-autumn festival. The villagers made a huge dragon of straw and covered it with incense sticks, which they then lit. Accompanied by drummers and erupting firecrackers, they danced for three days and three nights – and the plague disappeared.