Picture of the Day: Daoism

A Daoist parade along Salisbury Road in Tsim Sha Tsui

I was in Tsim Sha Tsui for lunch and when my friends and I were walking to the Star Ferry, we saw an interesting procession.

A group of warriors marches past

We didn't quite know what was going on except that it is the day of Daoism, my friend quickly surmised looking it up on his iPhone.

Unfortunately we don't know much more than that other than it was intriguing to see many men and women dressed in scholarly robes followed by giant "warriors", as indicated by the flags on their back in Chinese opera. They had magnificent headdresses much like the ones on stage, but their heads were made of papier mache.

Some of the faces looked menacing, and even the eyeballs could move, while others seemed to have more serene looks. The rest of the outfit was very elaborate, perhaps to look like they were wearing armour and the embroidery made it look like the armour had scales and even a menacing face in front.

The detail of the robes is very beautiful

These warriors were actually perched on top of people's shoulders to give them height and they must have been extremely heavy to carry, which explains why some took a break from carrying these warriors.

Another group of people dressed in more robes with the yin-yang symbol carried what looked like a shrine in gold and black, and giving it the imperial treatment with the vermillion shade and fans.

More Daoists carrying a shrine

After these people was a group of marching bands, the instruments performed by kids. We wondered what they had to do with Daoism, but could only think that they had drums in common...