Folks holding a grudge could have discovered a method to launch it in Hong Kong’s “villain hitting” ritual.

To alleviate themselves from a foul temper, clients paid ritual practitioners who work beneath the Canal Highway Flyover in Causeway Bay, one of many metropolis’s purchasing districts, and watched them bashing a picture of their goal with a shoe.

It may very well be anybody — rival lovers and unfriendly colleagues, or horrible bosses and unlikeable public figures.

The ritual is especially fashionable in March as a result of some folks consider the perfect day to carry out it falls on “ging zat,” as pronounced in Cantonese, a day on the Chinese language lunar calendar that actually means “awakening of bugs”.

This 12 months, “ging zat” fell on March 6. The custom, largely run by aged girls, attracted crowds of shoppers after the lifting of main COVID-19 restrictions, together with the masks mandate.

“I’m hoping to chop out all of the gossip round me and want the unhealthy folks would steer clear of me,” mentioned vacationer Edison Chan, who travelled from neighbouring Guangdong province.

The ritual, which doesn’t damage anybody bodily, might assist deliver hope to those that are distressed, mentioned Dr Beatrice Ng-Kessler, a registered scientific psychologist in Hong Kong and the UK.