Mardi....I mean Matzu Gras

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Over the weekend my town held a huge festival. It was in honor of Matzu, the goddess of the sea. Well my teachers filled me in on who Matzu was and what she did. She was born in China a long time ago and she did many great things while she was alive. They compare her to Mother Teresea. When she died she was turned into a goddess. There is a reason for the sea part but I dont remember. Anyways she is very famous and during this time of the year she leaves to go on an annual pilgramage to other Matzu temples around Taiwan. People carry her the entire way and many people walk or bike with her too. It is over a period of 8 days. She set out on Saturday night after 2 days of festivities.

Friday night there was a huge concert held at our stadium about a 5 min walk from my home. There were famous singers from Taiwan, China and Korea. Many of them I know from watching MTV and well their songs are played everywhere you go. I was really excited to see them. But of course it was not a normal concert as I was expecting but something resembling an awards show. There were 5 hosts of the show. Apparently they are famous too, but the only on I remember was an Asian version of Elton John. Unfortunalty we had to listen to them talk about who knows what between every performance. The show started out with a ballet depicting Matzu's life. Then some performers sang, then another ballet, then more singing, then ballet. Well you get the point. I was very interesting and I enjoyed the show, for once the language barrier was not a problem since you can understand the meaning from the performances and my Chinese continues to improve. The only thing that bothered me was the constant "Hellos" and "How are yous" seriously, I dont walk around saying "Ni Hao" to you. Also I was irritated by the constant stares from the high schoolers, at this point Id rather them take a picture of me and leave instead of staring to literally 5 minutes, its creepy. Anyways we had a great time watching the show and after wards there was a really good fireworks show. I honestly have never been that close to fire works in my life. They were actually shooting some off 5 feet from where we were standing. It was beautiful. One thing my town is really good at is fireworks. We know how to do it right here!!

After the show Mary, Muoy and I walked around town to check out what was going on. Lots of special vendors came in for the festival and there were many choices of food and things to buy. I loved it. I wish my town could be like that all the time, then I may like it a bit more. So I bought a Lion puppet, a dragon puppet and a bai bai flag. The flag is supposed to be used for praying or whatnot, but its pretty and it has my towns name on it, so I bought it. We continued to wander around then we headed home to rest up for the big day!

Saturday, we met up with Mike and Jequetta at the train station and we headed to a restaurant for some delicious Kung Pao chicken. It did not dissapoint, it was delicious as always. After that we took them back to my place so they could drop their stuff off and we could go enjoy the festivites. We headed straight for the temple to see the madness and Matzu. Once we got there we met up with another friend, Karen. All together I showed the the golden Matzu that is under the temple then we headed up to check out the temple. I was crazy in there with so many people praying and asking Matzu for things. Near the exit we found some mroe things to buy!! They were selling Dajia Matzu shirts. So everyone bought one and well I bought 2 since it does say my town on it and I am slightly obsssed with all things Dajia. Some guy had told us there was something special going on at 3, so we hung around to check it out. It was a parade and one group at a time came into the temple sqaure and did thier routine and prayed to Ｍatzu. It was quite strange to see the girls wearing platform shoes....note the pictures. After we had enough of that excitment we walked around the town. At one point a reporter took our picture and asked me questions and I even gave him my Chinese name. Unfourtunatly no one saw the article, so I dont have a copy to share. As we walked around we would see parades and people doing dances all over town. It was something I have only seen on TV and well I thought, these people are nuts, and now I am one of those people.

Eventually Mike, Jequetta and Karen left to head home, and Mary, Muoy and I were just starting to see how crazy it could get. We headed to the edge of town where some performances were going on. First there were acrobats and people who do crazy things. Then there were kids of all ages performing hip hop dances, to uneditied versions of the songs might I add. Then there were lion dance with even a 5 year old lion dancer, he was so cute!! After that we saw some Vietnamese circus performers, a guy who actually sang in English (well he was Canadian), a philipino band and finally a latina band. Overall it was nice to see some other foreigners and hear then speaking English. I was such a fun show. Once it was over, we headed to my coteacher, Sam's house. He live in a 5 story home right on the road where Matzu would go down. Preceding Matzu was a huge parade that lasted forever. The streets and atmosphere resembled that of Mradi Gras without the beads and flashing. Although there was a float with beatle nut pole dances. There were firecrackers and fireworks going off everywhere. As well as loud music. We had a great birdseye view of the action from the 4th floor and it was safe from the firecrackers. But still all the way on the 4th floor hanging out of the windows we managed to catch the attention of many people. It was fun to see them look and point and tell their friends, then Mary and I would indulge them and wave and blow kisses to the boys. It was one time I have had fun when people are starring at me.

At 11:05pm Matzu left the temple, or at least tried to. It took an hour for her to get from the temple to the street, and it is less than 75 meters. There are soo many people packed into a small place and they all want to touch the sedan of Matzu. When Matzu left the temple a firework show began. It is offically the longest firework show I have ever seen, I think it lasted for 45 minutes. It was really amazing and probably really expensive. The parade continued to move down the street making way for Matzu. As she drew closer businesses began setting off masses of firecrackers. The air was thick with smoke from the firecrackers and the incense. Everything was building up to when Matzu would arrive at each business. The business began to dump huge boxes of firecrackers on the street in preparation. People were setting off fireworks from the road as well. Once we could see Matzu, the first business we saw set off hundreds of firecracker and it resembled a small atomic bomb with the smoke cloud. They set off a firework water fall. The fireworks were set over the street and it rained purple fireworks for a good 5 minutes. Then all the people went to pray and ask Matzu for a wish. Then Matzu contined down the street and stopped right in front of where we were. The business across the street set off their firecrackers then they all rushed to ask Matzu for a wish. When Matzu is in front of you, you are supposed to make a wish, so Mary and I participated and I wished for a boyfriend, haha to please my coteacher, who says I need one. I was laughing as I did it. I should have stuck with my lifelong wishing tradition of wishing for a dog, but I decided to change it up this time. After Matzu passed by we contiuned to watch all the people following for a little bit. A bunch of people walk with
Matzu to the edge of town. After the masses passed we said goodbye to Sam and we headed home. The cleanup had already begun, but it looked like a war zone. With piles of trash in the street burning and trash everywhere. At this point the air was so heavy with smoke, I had a terrible time breathing and I wanted to get home as soon as possible to my nice air conditioned apartment. By time we got home it was around 1:30am and we were exhausted from the long day. We all crashed and didnt wake up til noon the next day.

Sunday was pretty uneventful, the town was virtually back to it normal boring self. We had shabu shabu for lunch and did some shopping before Mary and Muoy headed home. While Muoy was on her way home she called to tell me that Matzu was going through her town, its crazy how fast they had traveled. All week I have heard commercials on tv about Matzu and on Sunday, Matzu will return and once again my town will celebrate in style. On this day familes get together to have a big lunch, where they hire a chef to cook for them. I have been invited to Grace's house for this meal. Then after we eat we will go and welcome Matzu back to Dajia and I will see the crazyness all over again. I can hardly wait.

Here is some excerpts from a local newspaper explaining the event...

The annual procession of Dajia Matsu, the popular goddess and guardian of fishermen and sailors enshrined in Dajia, central Taichung County, set off in central Taiwan last night, as one of Taiwan's largest religious and cultural events.

The annual travels of Matsu, whose effect in Taiwan is much like that of the Pope in the West, begin at Dajia's Chenlan Temple where she is now enshrined, proceed to Fengtien temple in Hsinkang near Chiayi, southern Taiwan, and return to Dajia on the eighth day.
The tradition has been followed on the island for over a century, drawing the annual attendance of more than 100,000 followers from around the island.

A statue of the goddess set off at 11:05 p.m. last night on a special palanquin, or sedan chair, which is carried by devotees. Political heavyweights such as Vice President Annette Lu, Premier Su Tseng-chang, Speaker Wang Jin-pyng of the Legislative Yuan, and former chairman Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Kuomintang all attended a ceremony marking the start of the annual pilgrimage, which was presided over by Yen Ching-piao, an independent lawmaker and chairman of Chenlan Temple.

Tens of thousands of worshippers lining in the streets in Dajia cheered as men in red shirts carried the wooden palanquin out from Chenlan Temple for the eight-day tour.
Over the course of eight days and seven nights, Matsu will visit over 70 temples in townships of Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, and Chiayi counties, on a route spanning over 310 kilometers, and returning to Dajia April 29.

With huge crowds crushing police to get a closer look at the beloved goddess early yesterday morning, the procession took an hour to negotiate the 100 meters to the temple's exit and another two hours to reach the outskirts of the town, before embarking on the trip to Changhua.

The procession of Matsu is the climax of the 2007 Taichung County Matsu International Festival, running from March 4 through May 20. The festival is designed to make the religious celebrations a truly extravagant affair and promote local culture and tourism.

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Photos

The waterfall of fireworks
You can see all the people kneeling to pray to Matzu

Comments

[Aunt Linda]

Rachel, I am so sorry to hear of your accident and the pain that you are having. I hope that you were not in pain when you were in the crowds of the Matzu Gras. Did you get claustrophobic in the crowds? I think I saw those platform shoes at Schottenstein's :-) love you, Aunt Linda

[Aunt Karen]

Awesome!
Rachel, What an experience!! You described it so well I could even smell the firecrackers! It will definitely be a tad different to live life in the good ol' US of A again for you, Asian Princess!! Be careful, and thanks for all the great blogs.