Southern Taiwan - Taiwan - page 511

At around 7pm local Donggang leaders carry the Wang Yeh (on sedan chairs) over live
coals before they enter Donglong Temple.
Things to watch for on this day include people with paper yokes around their necks.
Square yokes indicate that a wish has been made. A fish or round yoke means a wish has
been fulfilled.
Down at the beach there will be hundreds of other temple representatives with their
gods and sedan chairs. Many will take the chairs into the ocean for a rough, watery bless-
ing. Painted troupes representing the Soong Jiang Battle Array will also be around,
though they usually perform earlier.
Days Two to Seven
The Wang Yeh are carried around town on an inspection and are then feasted. The boat is
also blessed.
Volunteers parade the boat through town to allow it to collect every bit of misfortune
and evil that it can. The boat returns to Donglong Temple around 7pm and is loaded with
all manner of goods, as if truly going on a voyage.
Between 10pm and 11pm, Taoist priests burn pieces of paper spell and chant in the
courtyard. This ritual relieves hundreds of gods and their thousands of foot soldiers from
the duties they have performed this past week. After 11pm, watch (and have your camera
ready) a priest with a wok , ba gua (Chinese religious motif) symbols, broom, rice sifter
and sword as he leads a large group of priests to dance and perform rituals to direct the
demons onto the boat.
Around midnight the leaders of the temple offer the Wang Yeh one last special feast of
108 dishes, which include famous traditional palace foods, local snacks, fruit and wine.
This is one of the most solemn and beautiful rites of the festival, but it's hard to get near
enough as there is an ocean of people, so you may want to wander around town a bit as
many of temples are also holding interesting celebrations and rituals.
Around 2am the boat is dragged on wheels out of the temple grounds through a fam-
ous gold foil arch (it's a sight you'll never forget) and down to the beach. Expect a lot of
exploding fireworks.
At the beach hundreds of tonnes of ghost paper is packed around the ship to help it
burn, and the anchors, mast, sails (made of real cloth), windsock and lanterns are hoisted
into place.
Finally the five Wang Yeh are invited onto the boat and firecrackers are used to start a
fire, which slowly engulfs the entire ship. The burning takes place between 5am and
7am and it's proper to flee as soon as the boat is lit, to avoid having your soul taken
away. But these days only older locals follow this custom.