Borrow from Guanyin (觀音)

There is a local custom for people to come to the Guanyin Temple, shortly after Lunar New Year,  to “take out a loan” from the bodhisattva. 

One comes to the temple and buys a package of incense and stuff to be offered to Guanyin.  One can then take a kind of promissory note of an astronomical sum of virtual money, from Guanyin's treasury.  At the end of the year, if indeed one is blessed with good fortune, one then comes back and makes another offering to show gratitude to the bodhisattva.  

Today the Guanyin temple in Hung Hom is full of people.  I estimated that there were at least a thousand people in the tightly controlled crowd in the street right in front of the temple.  There were a lot more at the holding area in the park across the street behind the temple.  And more were hurrying to join the end of the line. 

One thing that I did not notice in earlier years is the large number of foreigners, from South East Asian countries, apparently.  Many of them come in groups, with guides instructing them on what to do.  By their looks and language, they might be Indonesians or Thais.  But I cannot be sure.  

There is surely a festive atmosphere around the temple, bringing a lot of business to the shops in the area.