those who follow me on twitter (or glance at my twitter update-feed to the right), know by now that i finally got to experience DongGang’s famous boat burning festival. the triennial event is touted as being one of the biggest of it’s kind – which i tend to believe quite easily. according to the Taiwan News, roughly 100,000 people flocked to my old town to participate in its 300 year old tradition.
The eight-day festival opened with a mysterious and complicated ritual on the beach of Jhenhai Park. Five Wang Yeh gods joined the one enshrined at the temple for a four-day procession around DongGang before they boarded their wooden ship on which they “sailed” around the fishing port’s streets to expel evil spirits and plagues.
On the seventh day, the temple offered the gods a feast of 108 Chinese dishes accompanied by fine wine and liquor to thank them for warding off evil during the processions over the previous week.
The ritual culminated on Oct. 17 when the elaborately carved wooden boat was set on fire to symbolize the Wang Yehs setting off to heaven, taking with them the evil spirits and diseases they absorbed during the processions.
to give you an idea of what it was like, here are some random snaps (also collected from friends) and videos:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yft-qFgK2T0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=320&h=265]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X5HY-bV_rM&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=320&h=265]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk92T5vZ2wQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=320&h=265]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6yhgbFVbmw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=320&h=265]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k4gXu3pUH4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&w=320&h=265]
what i didn’t expect – and was really interesting – was the deafening silence right after the boat was lit. according to tradition, no festive sounds were allowed, lest the Wang Yeh turn around to see what the commotion is about. so after days of fireworks, local opera, gongs, bells, bands and whatnot – there was nothing…
creepy, but cool at the same time.
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