Sir Mody and HKU Every year on 12 October, a small yet solemn ceremony takes place in the Main Building — the University’s first building and one of Hong Kong’s most recognisable heritage landmarks. Members of HKU and Hong Kong’s Zoroastrian community gather together, to pay tribute to Sir Hormusjee N. Mody on his birth date, the man whose gift helped bring the University into being. For many who pass through the building, the ceremony is a quiet tradition. For the University

Every year on October 12, the birthday of Sir Hormusjee Mody, the University and Zoroastrian community commemorates his generosity to HKU by having a priest place a garland of flowers around the bust of Sir Mody located inside the Main Building. Sir Mody's initial offer of a donation to construct the Main Building with an endowment fund in 1908 made the HKU scheme a practical possibility and enabled Sir Fredrick Lugard, the then governor, to act. At the grand ceremony of