Ever feel that Hong Kong’s temples are a bit behind the times? Not anymore, apparently.
The Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon is reportedly going all high-tech, releasing an app for fortune telling and allowing remote worshippers to email in their prayers.
The news comes as Hong Kong prepares to usher in the Year of the Goat from midnight tonight, when thousands of people traditionally queue up to offer incense sticks at the main altars of temples.
However, this practice may soon be fazed out at Wong Tai Sin, as visitors will be urged to go eco-friendly, writing their wishes on paper and slipping them into a box in front of their deity of choice, which will then light up and exude artificial smoke in recognition.
We’re not sure why that’s more eco-friendly than burning incense sticks, but according to Channel News Asia, it is.
Another tradition set to bite the dust is that of “kau cim”, whereby fortunes are told by shaking numbered wooden sticks out of a tube, the result of which is interpreted by a monk.
However, come this summer, Android users will apparently be able to scan their kau cim stick and have their fortune read by an app instead.
Grumble. It wasn’t like that in our day.
Photo: Anita Ritenour
