Wishing tree festival

The Wishing Tree is in the Lam Tsuen village near our house.  People from all over Hong Kong visit the Wishing Tree, especially during Chinese New Year.  The village puts on a festival for a couple weeks over the holiday.  The kids wore their chinese outfits and looked pretty cute.  (In my unbiased opinion).

The wishing tree is a local tree that people started hanging wishes on for good luck.  The original tree got strained from the the weight of the wishes and they had to move to a new tree.  Officials build a stand with peg boards to hang the wishes on instead with signs telling people to use it instead of the tree, but people clearly prefer the tree.

The pegboard to hang wishes on (we went last weekend to check out the walk before CNY)

The old wishing tree, currently trying to be saved with supports

The new wishing tree with all the wishes

When we got to the festival, we bought wish placards for all the kids to fill out.  You put your name and date and there were a list of wishes you could select from on one side, both Lilia and Charlotte chose peace and prosperity of their family in the coming year.  Since Katherine had spent the night in the hospital right before their visit, Patrick thought they should select a year of good health.  Tommy decided he wanted to write his own wish and decided to ask to find his truck he had been using for a bank for the his "China money".  (He found a few Chinese coins on the street and was storing them separately from his HK money and had apparently misplaced them.)  Tommy tends to be very practical.  :)  

Making their wishes

Tommy's wish

The wishes are tied to fake oranges.  Then you have to throw the wishes into the tree.  Some of them took several attempts before they stayed.

 

Tommy throwing his wish on the tree

 There were lots of vendor set up selling food and souvenirs.  They also had several lion dances during the festival.  The lion dance is supposed to chase away evil spirits and bring good luck.  People buy packets of "greens" usually packs of lettuce tied with a string.  They attach red envelopes with money inside.  The people put the offerings in the lion's mouth.  The dancer inside, keeps the envelope and then tears apart the lettuce and has the lion spit out some of the lettuce.  This act is supposed to symbolize an abundance of food in the coming year.  It is hard work being a lion dancer.  The troupes spend many hours practicing and the dancers have to be in pretty good shape.  The troupe splits the money from the envelopes.

lion dance

They had a lot of yummy food at the festival.