Mazu's Birthday and pilgrimage

Mazu's birthday is one of the biggest and most important folk festivals in Taiwan which occurs every year around March. Mazu, Goddess of the Sea, is one of Taiwan's popular folk deity. Mazu deities are returned to their mother temples to be blessed and increase their spiritual powers. Preceding Mazu's birthday is the eight day pilgrimage, one of the world’s biggest festivals where worshippers parade a caravan or shrine containing one of the revered Mazu deities around a circuit before returning it to its mother temple in Dajia. As the deity is paraded through numerous towns and cities, other temples such as the Sen An Gong temple join in forming a long parade.

 For the last three years I have had the privilege to join the activity first hand, parading through Changhua with one of the local temples, Sen An Gong. Having been issue a uniform, can of beer in hand we walked through the streets of Changhua in a long procession.

Occasionally one of the gods from our temple would come up to us and pour a load of Kaoliang down our throats, a local spirit brewed in Taiwan.

Vast amounts of fireworks were set off in every street we walked down and every temple we past, making breathing though clouds of some difficult at times. Walking past people's house, the locals offered us food, water and beer.

  After a day's parading through the streets, the festivity ends with a huge fireworks display and a made scuffle of people trying to get a final touch of the caravan before it is carried onto the next place.