Mid-Autumn festival is linked to the harvest and thus an important traditional occurrence in Hong Kong and also in China. In full Black Bauhinia Revolution, it made sense that the protesters would try to celebrate mid-Autumn festival in a special manner.
Lights on the mountains
The previous “Hong Kong Way”, had a great success, principally because of the protesters who managed to climb on the Lion’s Rock and to shine lights from up there.
This time, the protesters targeted two of the most symbolic mountains in HK, namely the Lion’s Rock (again!) and the Victoria Peak.
The other tradition on mid-autumn festival is, of course, to go with lanterns – and sometimes… umbrellas!
This promised thus to be an interesting challenge on the festival night, which was due to take place on 13th of September.
Lockdown on the Peak
As we arrived at the peak, around 5 pm, there was still nobody around, but the police had locked up all hiking routes leading to the Peak. Obviously, this was an undeclared protest, but going to such vexatious lengths says something about the frustration of the authorities. Police deployment was kept light, nevertheless, and the policemen were not in riot gear, which promised a more relaxed atmosphere.
However, it was a longish wait until 7.30, time at which the reunion and the meeting spot was fixed at the Peak Galleria. We killed the time with some shots of the moon and of the city by night.
A chanting procession
As 7.30 struck, chants came through and we saw people streaming with lanterns all over the peak.
The few soon became a cheerful crowd, chanting slogans and very quickly starting with the National Anthem of Hong Kong, “Glory to Hong Kong”.
The lanterns were, for the most part, handmade, with messages relating to the protests.
Mid-Autumn lanterns on the Peak 
Mid-Autumn Lanterns on the peak with a background of the HK city 
One of the mid-autumn lanterns with a blue led lamp inside. 
Latners among protesters (pic Mitchy)
As the protest grew, a real luminous human chain was formed, with people lighting up the torch of their smartphone to create a view visible by drone.
Hongkongers standing together
By contrast to the habitual confrontations which tend to mark almost every protest now, the celebrations of the Hong Kong Way were much more focused on unity.
Holding hands, the protesters faced the city, showing a chain of light in the darkness.
As the protest ended, some protesters used their (ultra-powerful) laser pointers to do light signals to other protesters on other mountains across in Kowloon.
At that point, we left, as the pictures we were looking for were obtained. It was a wonderful moment that would soon be eclipsed by days of fire in Hong Kong.
