It happens at about the same time every year and it is one of the events I start looking forward to from around Christmas time and onwards, until it happens. It is never on a fixed
date as it alternates and has something to do with the lunar calendar and the influence of football devotion on some Sai Kung fishermen. This year this event happened Wednesday the 9th of February. I was not prepared for tt to happen as soon as it did this year. Normally it is always at the first trainings after the Chinese New Year holiday, but as the good football team “Sai Kung Yacht” has become, let us say, less constant and not as frequently as at the beginning when I joined, which is now about three years ago.
But as always in this new era of the team, I got a SMS or an e-mail from captain and manager Perry, telling me whet ever the training was on the following Wednesday or not. I received that notification from him
on Monday afternoon, saying that the event was on at 6 PM and then the game would start at 7 PM.I was thrilled and excited and also a bit surprised, as I’d not expected it to be that quick after the holiday. On that day I hurried home from work at about 4:30 to be able to be at Sai Kung Sports Ground at 6 PM. First I had to get to our house to change from the professional job related clothing to the more relaxed and sport related football outfit. There was just time to bring some close to the dry cleaner before I found my way to the sports ground.
The set up there was a bit like I had expected. Captain Perry and a couple other players were already there, mocking around preparing the stage for the main character of the evening. That main character isn’t really a character as such, not like Perry, our captain or anyone else from the team, no that special guest isn’t there to be there for a long time, it is just there to show of a bit and then get eaten.
It is part of a Chinese ritual at the lunar New Year, and it to welcome and celebrate the new coming year and to get even with the ghosts and spirits, so they will bless the team
in the following year. Incense and fake money gets burned by all team members, good Chinese schnapps get pored out on the ground and apples and oranges and then the special guest gets lined up as an offer of appreciation. But not for long, soon a big knife gets tucked into the back of that little special one and cuts it into bits and pieces for us all to eat. And then we all play some football with greasy fingers.
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