The Festival of Ancestors (Chung Yeung Festival) is an important public holiday in Macau.
The local Chinese community celebrates it as they use this opportunity to offer prayers to their ancestors in family graves.
Festival of Ancestors (Chung Yeung Festival), Macau, 2024 Dates
Families often bring offerings to their ancestors’ graves, though offerings of Chinese cakes are usually preferred because they believe those who consume the cakes will be promoted to the top place in heaven.
The Festival of Ancestors (Chung Yeung Festival) originated more than 2,000 years ago in ancient China, making it one of the oldest traditional events. Back then, it was only celebrated by the Emperor and his nobles in the Imperial Palace. This was when they established a worship ritual for a star called the Antares, famous for being the brightest celestial being in the constellation of Scorpio.
Antares was worshipped as a god because he represented a change in seasons and was thought to be a symbol of abundance for harvest.
Just like other Chinese festivals, there are legends associated with this. It’s believed that the demon-killing warrior named Huan Jing was responsible for killing a demon that caused a plague that affected the area around the Ruhe River.
Huan Jing’s parents fell victim to the plague and passed away, but he swore revenge to stop the evil being spread by the demon. He was successful in doing so after he met an immortal hermit who helped him exact revenge.
