Saturday, 3 October 2026by 5L Lisa Gao
Recently on 24 September, the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, we, the S5 Chinese History Group, did something truly once-in-a-lifetime and absolutely memorable: Fire-Dragon Dancing.
Fire-Dragon Dancing in Pok Fu Lam Village used to be an activity meant for showing ownership of the land by having Gods protect their people; later on, it became a tradition more focused only on increasing the cohesion between villagers, as well as preserving the rare but beautiful “fire dragons” running, praying for the villagers as festivals come.
Most traditional activities, if kept in their original practice fully, tend to be both fun, perhaps even exciting, but also tiring. Fire-Dragon Dancing is a typical case: length up to 3 metres per dragon, made of wood and sticks. Despite the large number of people helping to hold it together, with more than 1 km’s distance of dragon dancing and the heavy lift, dragon dancing is tiring.
Yet it’s not from tiredness we found the experience memorable, but the calmness after, the excitement within the experience. “It’s definitely hot when you do the dragon dancing, but what’s hotter is the heat from your heart!” I quote. I was told such by a villager long before the dragon dancing activity; I did not understand why one could be so enthusiastic about Dragon Dancing full well by then.
Yet as the day really came, us students and villagers “lighting” the fire up on the dragon by adding dozens of incense in, following the dragon and sometimes actually controlling it, hearing some villagers mentioning with great pride how her grandchildren was chosen to lead the dragon, things felt different in a good way: given the full trust of the villagers and through joining in properly, we also became a part of the tradition in the night. We sweated and half-ran from places to places as expected, but indeed, we are all glad that this chance came and in the end, fully immersed in the activity while we all got to become part of the view: a fire dragon being as bright as lamps, swirling around like a real dragon coming to life, hundreds of eyes gathering around it.
To sum up, Fire-Dragon Dancing is a tradition that brought us Chinese History students great memories. Dear readers, if given the chance like ours, do not hesitate to join, preserve the culture and gain a once-in-a-lifetime experience as well!