GBA Lifestyle News
For years, residents of the Fong Ma Po Village in Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, would visit two banyan trees next to Tin Hau Temple during festivals. They wrote their wishes on joss paper, tied the paper to an orange, and threw it into the trees. It was believed that the higher up among the branches the paper landed, the more likely the wish would come true. The practice has since been outlawed by the Hong Kong government, both due to concerns about preserving the trees and about potential accidents — a branch broke and fell in 2005, almost injuring two people — but the trees still net a lot of visitors, especially during Chinese New Year. While visitors can no longer toss their wishes into the trees, they can tie them to nearby racks or imitation trees, with the hope that the trees’ presence might infuse their wishes with good luck.
