Showing posts with label ceremonies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ceremonies. Show all posts

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Confucius Says...

...NO FUN FOR YOU!



OK, I can't say that the dress rehearsal for his birthday on September 28th (happy b-day, bro) wasn't eye-catching. It was - it was stately, dignified, sedate...all the things you expect in a ceremony to honor Confucius.

It's just that the real thing is happening tomorrow at 6am and the ceremony was so stately and dignified that I have no idea how anyone could stay awake for it at that ungodly* hour. If I were Lord of the Universe, 6am on a Sunday would be banished from Time.

Not only that, but only a few hundred passes will be given out, so hardcore Confucius fans line up as early as 3am to get them. In what is shaping up to be a drenching typhoon.

We got there as the rain for the latest and greatest typhoon started up - and found that only people with a special ID ("can li zheng" or "ceremony attendee ID") could enter to watch the rehearsal. I knew my sister was inside - Zheng-da brings its foreign students there - so I tried that angle to get an ID, figuring I could get Joseph and Brendan in later. No luck.

Then two students who were not impressed came out and gave us their IDs. Their loss, our gain. The gatekeeper shooed the three of us in before anyone noticed that there were only two IDs.

"Feather dancers" in yellow robes stood in front of the main shrine, occasionally doing a decorous dance lacking completely in flash. Red-robed musicians played instruments "from the Zhou Dynasty" (obviously meaning that they were invented and used in that time, not that the actual instruments in use date from that time)...though I'm not sure I'd call it "playing" so much as striking the same four notes, each held for at least one measure, over and over.



A Master of Ceremonies sang a long, spiraling tune detailing all of the witnesses and groups present. I guess those chants are more mysterious and haunting when you don't know what the guy is singing. When you do know that he's belting out "Reeeeeeeepublic of Chiiiiiiinnnnnaaaaaa in the yeeeeeeear niiiinnneetttyyy seeevvveeeennnnn....wiiittnnessedd byyy stttuuuddeenntss frrooomm Naationaaaaal Taaaaiwaaaan Zheeeeengzhiiiii Universityyyyyy", it loses that sacred touch, you know?



There were more feather dances as people in the various small shrines around the main building gave offerings - or rather rehearsed giving offerings - and they practiced how things will go when Ma Ying-jiu comes to make an offering to Confucius in person.



It was quite fascinating to compare this example of austerity and reserve with the wild pageants that take place at the Bao'an Temple next door. At Baosheng Dadi and Sengnung Dadi's birthdays you can be assured of several giant (ten to fifteen feet high) costumes of various folk deities coming out, some martial artists with painted faces, lion dancers, pole balancers, and other costumes...and the occasional firewalking. I've grown fond of the large porcelain floats depicting mythical beasts and creatures with lit-up eyes and steam blowing out of their mouths. Take all that riotous color and noise and place it next to - literally next door to - the quiet dignity of this ceremony and you end up with a very good metaphor for Taiwan.



When all was said and done, the feather dancers (mostly teenagers) looked relieved and we retired to "Confucius Coffee", located in the temple behind the gift shop. Or tried to - it was closed.

For anyone interested in watching the ceremony next year or sweet-talking your way into an attendee pass for the rehearsal, The Con-Meister's birthday is not on the lunar calendar (or so I'm told); word has it that it's fixed on September 28th every year (ceremony 6-11am), with the rehearsal on the 27th around 3pm at the Confucius Temple near Yuanshan MRT station.




*pun intended

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Inaugural Post - Firewalking and More

I'm starting this blog for the sake of collecting information on Taiwan, with a focus on cultural activities or other events and activities of interest to a visitor, student or expat here.

The thing is that most of this information is available only in Chinese, or in English, but sporadically; often, it's out there, but you have to hunt it down in person, which can be time-consuming or even impossible for a shorter term traveler or someone on a busy work schedule.

With that, I bring you information gleaned from Bao'An Temple regarding their annual cultural festival. It's based on the lunar calendar so I've looked up dates in my 2009 daybook as needed.

Activity 2009 / Date / Lunar Calendar Date / Time

Temple Parade - Baosheng Dadi
Thurs. April 9
Lunar 3/14
1pm +/-


Firewalking
Friday April 10
Lunar 3/15
1:30-3:30 +/-


Temple Parade - Sengung Dadi
Wed. May 20th
Lunar 4/26
12:30-1:30 +/-



All of these events begin at Bao'An Temple near Yuanshan MRT in Taipei City. It's on the map in the station there, and noted on most city maps, including those in the major guidebooks.

The information comes from a 2008 brochure, with the lunar calendar dates projected forward into 2009 - fortunately my daybook cites the lunar calendar date for each day under the main calendar. If there are any changes or other interesting activities during that time, I'll update when I become aware of them.

What to expect at one of these events? The "parades" are really "God's Border Inspection Tours" - the idols from the temple are taken out on palanquins and paraded around town. They are usually accompanied by a long parade including martial artists in traditional face make-up, large "puppet" costumes (they're not really puppets - they're immortals and other spiritual beings) that tower ten feet or higher, lion dancers, ceramic animal floats blowing steam, music and all sorts of other fun stuff.

The firewalking is probably the most fascinating of the activities. The same palanquins are brought out along with slightly different "lion" heads while young men run around a spread of blazing hot coals. Then some people come forth with baskets of salt and pour it on the coals, creating billows of smoke. The men carrying the idols are said to become "possessed" by the gods and walk across the coals as such. Apparently, they are not injured.

At least one student of mine has said that the bearers are, in fact, injured - usually with 2nd degree burns on their feet (big surprise). "Are they really possessed?" I asked.

Apparently not. Some say they are, others just go with the flow, but aren't 'possessed' in any way.