Hong Kong's Vibrant Death Customs: From Columbariums to Hungry Ghost Festival
In Hong Kong, white symbolizes death, but the city's cultural expressions of mortality are vividly colorful. Shaped by a unique history and pragmatic spirit, an array of death-related customs, professions, and festivals brings life to these traditions—much like a skilled mortician adding hues to the pallor. Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and folk beliefs thrive at the graveside, highlighting the city's religious diversity.
Confucian worshipers burn incense at the Yuen Tuen Institute in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong. Image by Afton Almaraz / The Image Bank / Getty Images.
Po Fook Hill Columbarium
Nestled on a hillside with pagoda-like structures and the scent of incense, Po Fook Hill Columbarium (Lot 311 Pai Tau St, Sha Tin; 9am-5pm) resembles a temple. Visitors arrive via escalator or funicular railway to the main courtyard, bearing flowers, fruits, and paper offerings. Inside, a dozen rooms feature portraits of the deceased on tiny wall panels, each concealing a niche for an urn. Costs range from US$5000 to $70,000.
Families present offerings, light incense, and bow in reverence. Afterward, food is shared at home, while paper items are burned to 'beam' them to the afterlife.
Po Fook Hill Columbarium. Image by Piera Chen / Lonely Planet.
Happy Valley Cemeteries
This cosmopolitan cluster of cemeteries mirrors the vibrant city. The largest and greenest, Hong Kong Cemetery, holds gravestones of early colonialists, including the oldest (c.1841) in Happy Valley—that of Royal Navy Captain William Brodie, buried before the British colony's founding.
St Michael's Catholic Cemetery serves Catholic missionaries, Irish soldiers, and Macanese tycoons. Shaded by tall berry trees, smaller sites nearby cater to Jewish, Hindu, Parsee, and Muslim communities.
From Causeway Bay MTR (exit A), follow Russell St, turn left onto Wong Nai Chung Rd, and walk south 15 minutes. Entrances face the racecourse's main gate. Open 7am–6/7pm.
Hong Kong Funeral Home
The city's oldest funeral home (679 King’s Rd, North Point; MTR Quarry Bay, exit C) has farewelled many prominent figures. Taoist rites dominate (75-80% of funerals), featuring noisy cymbals, suona reed instruments, and elaborate props like coins and flaming swords. These rituals symbolically guide the soul to the afterlife. Nearby streets bustle with florists crafting lily-scented wreaths.
Hong Kong's oldest funeral home. Image by Piera Chen / Lonely Planet.
Hungry Ghost Festival
During the seventh lunar month (Yu Lan or Hungry Ghost Festival), gates of hell open, allowing spirits to visit the living. Families burn incense, food, and 'hell money' roadside—often with domestic helpers' aid. Elaborate paper offerings, from butlers to Rolls-Royce fleets, appease ghosts. Weddings avoid this period, and children stay indoors at night.
In Kowloon City and other neighborhoods, celebrations peak on the 15th with Cantonese opera in bamboo theaters (e.g., Argyle Street Playground), food distributions, and parades.
Hell money to appease spirits and a paper mansion. Image by Piera Chen / Lonely Planet.
Votive Paper Offerings
Shops at 136–150 Queen’s Road West (8am–7pm) display papier-mâché items for the deceased: heavenly vehicles like cranes and bridges, or daily essentials. Luxuries such as iPads, roast duck, or Viagra, plus stacks of hell money, ensure comfort in the afterlife.
Burial Garments
Leung Chun Woon Kee (梁津煥記; 17 Square St, Sheung Wan; 9am–5:30pm; closed Sun), founded in 1904, crafts burial clothes in white, black, brown, or blue—never red, reserved for vengeful spirits. Sleeves fully cover hands to avoid impoverishing descendants; pockets are absent to preserve family fortune. No photos permitted.
Pak Shing Ancestral Hall. Image by Piera Chen / Lonely Planet.
Kwong Fuk Ancestral Hall
Built in 1856 at 42 Tai Ping Shan Street, Sheung Wan, this hall (aka Pak Shing, or 'the people's') stored bodies for repatriation to China and honored those unable to afford it with 3000 memorial tablets, still visible behind the altar.
