Life Stages
Ancestor hall lantern
| PLACE | Sheung Shui Man Shek Tong |
| DATE | 1965-02-15 |
| OBSERVATIONS | The clans of the New Territories traditionally expected the birth of a son to be marked by the lighting of a lantern in the ancestor hall at the first new year after the event. This at once informed the ancestors of an increase in their descendants and registered with the living elders the right of the new born son to enjoy all the privileges of clan membership. The birth of a daughter was not attended by any such ceremony, because she was a temporary member of the clan only, eventually being married out to join her husband’s clan. Some clans still observe ‘lighting the lantern’, others insist on it only in the case of sons born outside the village (to clansmen working overseas, for example), and in some cases the custom seems to have died out altogether. |