Dajia Mazu International Religous Festival (There're many other names...)
http://travel.cnn.com/taiwan-mazu-religious-festival-pilgrimage-226351
Wonder if any one of you know about this event, but this is a really big national event of Taiwan that has been around for at least 50 years. And since I'm going to study abroad in this fall, I decided to feel the religious zeal of Taiwan before i leave this beautiful country. People call it the "Mazu Mania" quite literally in Taiwan for some reason that I intended to find out.
Specialty of this festival
- a 9 days marching with Mazu
- religious march, shows your dedication and devotion of Mazu
- allegedly very efficacious
- the feeling of traditions and religious devotion
- free food along the way given by really kind people, often volunteers
- very kind people who would easily chat with you
- It is essentially a huge parade celebrating Mazu~ The pilgrimage part is to show your dedication, not a compulsory. However i strongly recommend you to at least walk with Mazu for one day. It will be an unforgettable memory. I myself could only handle one day of walking, yet some of the very ardent followers completed the route annually.
A little background~
This march, or Mazu mania, is just another more grand and advertised "jinxiang" 進香 activity.
The history of the "jinxiang" activity is based on the belief that all the Gods statues comes from this one single temple and annually they will go back "home" and visit. So annually people in temples will ask each Gods when and how does he or she wants to go home by "buaibue" 擲筊. It's really interesting because the gods do have different opinions each year. The temple near my grandmother's home has the same "jinxiang" activity. One year the event was cancelled in the temple near my grandmother's home because the town wasn't in a good shape and these activities usually cost a lot of money. And another year the event was switched to a temple in Tainan because the Gods in the temple wishes to go there. And sometimes the duration of their stay also varies. All we, as religious followers, have to do is to obey and wait for the Gods. I mean, what else is there to do~? They only meet up once a year~
The thing about all these events is that there'll be volunteers or people donating money. These people are usually those with wishes they hope the Gods can help them with. In order for the Gods to help you, you need to contribute some effort or with a good intention. A proverb in Chinese call it "those with money donate money, those with effort donate effort." So if you have any wishes, you can choose to donate either one that you are more available or comfortable at giving. People believe the more you give, the more the Gods will give their blessing.
This is also the reason why you'll see a lot of names in those bigger temples in Taiwan. They are the people who donated money to build this temple, so they want to inscribe their names. Also, people donate food for every "jinxiang" activity. Even in the temple near my grandmother's town, a really really small one, people also have free meals. And at the end people even pack the unfinished, so whenever there's "jinxiang", my grandmother only cooks for the breakfast~ It's really interesting.
For this Mazu Mania, since its the biggest religious event of the year, i believe, everything elevates to a completely different level. There're more taboos, stories, and rules that some of which i don't even know about, but here i will share some that i do know.
Random things to know about the event
* The people who carries the "jiao" which the Mazu is in.
The job is usually done by those who regularly does this, so don't try to ruin the custom. However, every temple and every locations Mazu goes to has their own group of people who are quite literally responsible for "stealing" the "jiao". This can be dangerous as violence are often involved.
In Changhua, the second major city on the way, the "jiao" is transferred to polices instead of those people and it will always has 顏清標, the minister of Jenn Lann temple, in front of the "jiao"橋 to secure the "jiao"橋 from being stolen.
*Long stools stacked with joss money and covered by red paper.
If you walk tightly beside Mazu, you will notice people trying to put the "jiao"橋 on top of two stools covered by red paper. Underneath the red paper, there're stacks and stacks of joss money. This is known to be another tradition and custom of this activity. The joss money underneath are proven to be very effective for wishes and Mazu's will. However, this is not something everybody can conduct. Only people with enough local power and status to even have the stools.
*Fireworks to slow down the temple of the "jiao" 橋.
It is believed that the longer the Mazu stay at one temple, the more luck and fortune the temple gets. Thus all temples along the way will put lots and lots of fireworks to delay the schedule of Mazu. So don't be frightened by the enormous amount of fireworks located on the side of the streets.
* "Zhuanqiaodi" 鑽橋底 Taiwanese pronounciation: Nenggiouca
This is a custom not limited to this Mazu Mania. Every other "jinxiang" activity has it. There are two ways to conduct this tradition. One is you knee on the pavements and the "jiao" will pass on top of you. Another one is you climb pass underneath the "jiao". This grants you good luck and health and basically every good things possible from the Gods. I didn't do this during the Mazu Mania so I'm not really sure which one did they use for this. Just watch others and follow xp
* Food
Vegetarian for the route going towards the temple and meat for the route going back to Taichung.
Some ardent religious followers would even start their vegetarian diet three days prior the beginning of the activity. We all need to respect this tradition.
* Resting time
During the entire March, it is crucial that you arrange resting time for yourself. The Mazu stops only briefly because the people who carried the "jiao" take shifts, so in order to catch up the Mazu, its important to find time to rest periodically yourself. Sure you can live at a hotel and rest comfortably for the night, but that's not how most people does it. People just sleep on the side of the street, the bag is the pillow and the coat is the blanket. Everything is simple and austere for this sacred religious activity. For all the dedicated followers, or those of you willing try this for a longer time, for every major city the Mazu spent overnight, there're free delivery services provided by the "Black cat" delivery company as another form of giving. Thus, you can see a lot of people with luggage and sleeping equipments.
----------
Transportation to get there.
Since this is an annual event, everything and everywhere is the same throughout the years. Even though the time might be a little different due to the Mazu, but all the locations are settled. I found this out through chatting with some of the people along the way. They can even recall where each food will be given. Like when it's breakfast time, they even said, hey the noodles is right behind the corner, hurry up. haha, it's fun~
The starting point is ALWAYS Dajia Jenn Lann Temple (spelling may vary) 大甲鎮瀾宮. To get here, it is most advisable to take the train from about 5 stations away. The closer it gets the harder it will be to EVEN GET ON THE TRAIN because it will be already packed by the people who travelled from further stations.
The station is called 大甲 station. Once you step out of the station, you will see this,
It's like a night market full of people who's going to march with the Mazu. Just walk straight ahead, and eventually you will definitely see the temple itself. If not, just follow the crowd and the sound. haha, always the easiest way to find the Mazu. And then there you see it~ Now you can choose to follow Mazu or walk ahead or behind. For the first time, i will advise you to stay with Mazu to really FEEL the religious zeal. Otherwise it's better to walk ahead and so relax. There's no scheduled resting time of the journey, so you will have to find time yourself. Walking ahead makes it easier to catch up with Mazu after you slept.
----------
Speaking from a personal point of view, I do find this activity extremely interesting and worthwhile. Tradition is often what keeps a society stable. Seeing all the volunteers giving out free food, watching all the ardent followers walking slowly yet resolutely (many of them are seniors), and walking along with all these kind people reminded me once again just how precious and adorable my home country is. As a first time beginner, my body couldn't handle an all night walking journey. Next time, however, i'll definitely aim higher and longer~!!!!!
----------
Thank you for reading~ Ariel's Conch~~
http://travel.cnn.com/taiwan-mazu-religious-festival-pilgrimage-226351
Wonder if any one of you know about this event, but this is a really big national event of Taiwan that has been around for at least 50 years. And since I'm going to study abroad in this fall, I decided to feel the religious zeal of Taiwan before i leave this beautiful country. People call it the "Mazu Mania" quite literally in Taiwan for some reason that I intended to find out.
Specialty of this festival
- a 9 days marching with Mazu
- religious march, shows your dedication and devotion of Mazu
- allegedly very efficacious
- the feeling of traditions and religious devotion
- free food along the way given by really kind people, often volunteers
- very kind people who would easily chat with you
- It is essentially a huge parade celebrating Mazu~ The pilgrimage part is to show your dedication, not a compulsory. However i strongly recommend you to at least walk with Mazu for one day. It will be an unforgettable memory. I myself could only handle one day of walking, yet some of the very ardent followers completed the route annually.
A little background~
This march, or Mazu mania, is just another more grand and advertised "jinxiang" 進香 activity.
The history of the "jinxiang" activity is based on the belief that all the Gods statues comes from this one single temple and annually they will go back "home" and visit. So annually people in temples will ask each Gods when and how does he or she wants to go home by "buaibue" 擲筊. It's really interesting because the gods do have different opinions each year. The temple near my grandmother's home has the same "jinxiang" activity. One year the event was cancelled in the temple near my grandmother's home because the town wasn't in a good shape and these activities usually cost a lot of money. And another year the event was switched to a temple in Tainan because the Gods in the temple wishes to go there. And sometimes the duration of their stay also varies. All we, as religious followers, have to do is to obey and wait for the Gods. I mean, what else is there to do~? They only meet up once a year~
The thing about all these events is that there'll be volunteers or people donating money. These people are usually those with wishes they hope the Gods can help them with. In order for the Gods to help you, you need to contribute some effort or with a good intention. A proverb in Chinese call it "those with money donate money, those with effort donate effort." So if you have any wishes, you can choose to donate either one that you are more available or comfortable at giving. People believe the more you give, the more the Gods will give their blessing.
This is also the reason why you'll see a lot of names in those bigger temples in Taiwan. They are the people who donated money to build this temple, so they want to inscribe their names. Also, people donate food for every "jinxiang" activity. Even in the temple near my grandmother's town, a really really small one, people also have free meals. And at the end people even pack the unfinished, so whenever there's "jinxiang", my grandmother only cooks for the breakfast~ It's really interesting.
For this Mazu Mania, since its the biggest religious event of the year, i believe, everything elevates to a completely different level. There're more taboos, stories, and rules that some of which i don't even know about, but here i will share some that i do know.
Random things to know about the event
* The people who carries the "jiao" which the Mazu is in.
The job is usually done by those who regularly does this, so don't try to ruin the custom. However, every temple and every locations Mazu goes to has their own group of people who are quite literally responsible for "stealing" the "jiao". This can be dangerous as violence are often involved.
In Changhua, the second major city on the way, the "jiao" is transferred to polices instead of those people and it will always has 顏清標, the minister of Jenn Lann temple, in front of the "jiao"橋 to secure the "jiao"橋 from being stolen.
*Long stools stacked with joss money and covered by red paper.
If you walk tightly beside Mazu, you will notice people trying to put the "jiao"橋 on top of two stools covered by red paper. Underneath the red paper, there're stacks and stacks of joss money. This is known to be another tradition and custom of this activity. The joss money underneath are proven to be very effective for wishes and Mazu's will. However, this is not something everybody can conduct. Only people with enough local power and status to even have the stools.
*Fireworks to slow down the temple of the "jiao" 橋.
It is believed that the longer the Mazu stay at one temple, the more luck and fortune the temple gets. Thus all temples along the way will put lots and lots of fireworks to delay the schedule of Mazu. So don't be frightened by the enormous amount of fireworks located on the side of the streets.
* "Zhuanqiaodi" 鑽橋底 Taiwanese pronounciation: Nenggiouca
This is a custom not limited to this Mazu Mania. Every other "jinxiang" activity has it. There are two ways to conduct this tradition. One is you knee on the pavements and the "jiao" will pass on top of you. Another one is you climb pass underneath the "jiao". This grants you good luck and health and basically every good things possible from the Gods. I didn't do this during the Mazu Mania so I'm not really sure which one did they use for this. Just watch others and follow xp
* Food
Vegetarian for the route going towards the temple and meat for the route going back to Taichung.
Some ardent religious followers would even start their vegetarian diet three days prior the beginning of the activity. We all need to respect this tradition.
* Resting time
During the entire March, it is crucial that you arrange resting time for yourself. The Mazu stops only briefly because the people who carried the "jiao" take shifts, so in order to catch up the Mazu, its important to find time to rest periodically yourself. Sure you can live at a hotel and rest comfortably for the night, but that's not how most people does it. People just sleep on the side of the street, the bag is the pillow and the coat is the blanket. Everything is simple and austere for this sacred religious activity. For all the dedicated followers, or those of you willing try this for a longer time, for every major city the Mazu spent overnight, there're free delivery services provided by the "Black cat" delivery company as another form of giving. Thus, you can see a lot of people with luggage and sleeping equipments.
----------
Transportation to get there.
Since this is an annual event, everything and everywhere is the same throughout the years. Even though the time might be a little different due to the Mazu, but all the locations are settled. I found this out through chatting with some of the people along the way. They can even recall where each food will be given. Like when it's breakfast time, they even said, hey the noodles is right behind the corner, hurry up. haha, it's fun~
The starting point is ALWAYS Dajia Jenn Lann Temple (spelling may vary) 大甲鎮瀾宮. To get here, it is most advisable to take the train from about 5 stations away. The closer it gets the harder it will be to EVEN GET ON THE TRAIN because it will be already packed by the people who travelled from further stations.
The station is called 大甲 station. Once you step out of the station, you will see this,
It's like a night market full of people who's going to march with the Mazu. Just walk straight ahead, and eventually you will definitely see the temple itself. If not, just follow the crowd and the sound. haha, always the easiest way to find the Mazu. And then there you see it~ Now you can choose to follow Mazu or walk ahead or behind. For the first time, i will advise you to stay with Mazu to really FEEL the religious zeal. Otherwise it's better to walk ahead and so relax. There's no scheduled resting time of the journey, so you will have to find time yourself. Walking ahead makes it easier to catch up with Mazu after you slept.
----------
Speaking from a personal point of view, I do find this activity extremely interesting and worthwhile. Tradition is often what keeps a society stable. Seeing all the volunteers giving out free food, watching all the ardent followers walking slowly yet resolutely (many of them are seniors), and walking along with all these kind people reminded me once again just how precious and adorable my home country is. As a first time beginner, my body couldn't handle an all night walking journey. Next time, however, i'll definitely aim higher and longer~!!!!!
----------
Thank you for reading~ Ariel's Conch~~