Crowd-control At Temple As Visitors Seek Blessings

People have flooded the Wong Tai Sin Temple on the first day of the Lunar New Year to seek blessings, but strict crowd-control measures are being put in place as an anti-epidemic precaution.

Visitors to the temple have to scan a QR code for the government’s LeaveHomeSafe app to record the time of their visits, or leave their personal particulars with the staff.

A woman surnamed Wong told RTHK that she used to adhere to tradition and visit the temple in the small hours of the New Year's Day to attend its inaugural incense burning ceremony, but it’s “disappointing” that the event had been scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The temple instead live-streamed the event for the first time in almost a hundred years.

But a Ms Lo said it was not very crowded at the temple and she felt safe. She said she will make a wish for stability to return to the city.

A student surnamed Mak said he had prayed to the god for the pandemic soon, so that people no longer have to wear masks whenever they go out, and so he could go back to school.