About Macau Customs and Traditions

1. Fish Traders Drunken Dragon Festival

The Fish Traders Drunken Dragon Festival is a traditional folklore festival unique to Macau Fresh Fish Traders, also known as the Macau Fish Traders Drunken Dragon and Lion Dance Festival. It is held every year on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar. The Drunken Dragon Dance originated from Xiangshan County in Guangdong Province (present-day Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Macao) hundreds of years ago.

2. Thanking Zaos

Thanking Zaos is one of the most traditional Chinese New Year customs preserved in Macau. On the 23rd day of the Lunar New Year, the Macau people send the God of Zao, which is called "thanking the God of Zao". The Macanese tradition of giving Zaos to the God of Zaos is to use sugar to cover the mouth of the God of Zaos, so that the God of Zaos will not say bad things to the Jade Emperor.

Expanded Information

History of the Yu Xing Drunken Dragon Festival: The Drunken Dragon Festival originated in Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province hundreds of years ago. At that time, the plague was rampant in Xiangshan, the villagers sought help from the Buddha, carrying the Buddha statue by the river, the river suddenly jumped out of a big snake, cut by the villagers and blood stained the river.

The townspeople drank the river water to get rid of the plague, they think that the snake is a dragon's descent, they created a dance drunken dragon to commemorate, with the annual lunar calendar on the eighth day of the fourth month of this auspicious day. Praying for favorable weather conditions and the elimination of water-related disasters and ritual activities.

Towards the end of the 19th century, when the war in China was raging, the ancestors of the fishmongers from the Heungshan area migrated to Macao, and combined with the ancestors of the fishmongers who used to live in Macao, this folk custom was rooted in Macao, and then it evolved into a symbol of unity among the Macao fishmongers.

Through the efforts of several generations of inheritors, the Macao Fresh Fish Traders' Drunken Dragon Festival has grown in scale, with an increasingly large team, and has not only become a large-scale traditional festival unique to Macao's harmonious society and with local characteristics, but also a precious intangible cultural heritage of the region, which is passed down from one year to the next.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Zao Sacrifice

Baidu Encyclopedia - Yu Xing Drunken Dragon Festival