One day when you won’t have the trails to yourself is October 9^th, the Chung Yeung Festival. This special day is marked by families congregating to engage in the age-old practice of worshipping their ancestors. It is also popular to hike up to the city’s high points on this day, as it’s believed this will bring good luck. Many people like to take a picnic and eat a special cake called ‘Ko’ as the name in Cantonese sounds similar to ‘high’, so people eat them in the hope of being promoted to higher positions. 

As with many traditional customs, it dates back to ancient dynasties, in this case the Han Dynasty from 202 BC to 220 AD. Legend has it that a soothsayer advised a man to leave his town with his family for higher ground. He did so and on returning discovered that all the townspeople had been slaughtered, while he and his family were saved, hence the story became a tradition for blessings of health and safeness.