According to media reports, Hsinkang Foundation of Culture and Education chairman Chen Jin-huang (陳錦煌) released a statement last year allegedly at the request of Matsu (媽祖), the goddess of the sea, who Chen said appeared to him in a dream.
In the statement, titled: “A warning from Matsu of Fengtian Gong Temple in Chiayi County’s Singang Township (新港) for its centennial religious ceremony,” Matsu warned her followers that they should no longer set off firecrackers or burn ghost money, and that when they burn incense, one stick is enough.
Meanwhile, Nanyao Gong Temple in Changhua City has started to reduce its number of incense burners and incense sticks, while using environmentally friendly firecrackers.
Since 2008, Jenn Lann Gong Temple in Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲) has run “a clean Taiwan during the Dajia Matsu pilgrimage” campaign, calling on people to pick up trash and not set off firecrackers.
Since many of the health problems people have are the result of pollution, Matsu repeatedly made her power known recently, demanding that people be more environmentally aware.
A child patient of mine has asthma and needs to keep a daily track of his health. When the pilgrimage passed through his neighborhood in Changhua City last year, his log recorded that he had been wheezing.
I reminded him to take necessary precautions against the problem during a regular outpatient service last month, and he replied that he would stay at his relatives’ home in Changhua County’s Huatan Township (花壇) at the time the pilgrimage passes his home. Who has turned this joyful festival into a disaster that scares people away?
Not long before this year’s pilgrimage began on April 8, environmental groups in central Taiwan visited Jenn Lann Temple vice chairman Cheng Ming-kun (鄭銘坤).
Cheng said that the temple has long discouraged people in cities and counties where the pilgrimage passes from setting off too many firecrackers and that the situation in Changhua County is the worst, because locals are unwilling to listen. Cheng said that the temple is the “guest” and the county is the “host” during the pilgrimage, so there is nothing it can do, and that it is up to the people in the county to do more.
On March 25, Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) announced on Facebook that, during the nine-day pilgrimage, people are banned from setting off firecrackers from 10pm to 6am, with breaches to be punished by law. However, when the Matsu of the county’s Nanyao Temple returned to the temple on April 2 after a pilgrimage, locals still set off excessive amounts of firecrackers, causing many complaints from the public. This raises concern over whether Wei’s pledge can really do anything when the Dajia Matsu pilgrimage passes through.
Many people support the environmentally friendly measures at temples across Taiwan. Ever since Taipei’s Xingtian Gong Temple announced it would prohibit incense burning and food offerings two years ago, the number of people attending the temple has doubled. Today, only a few people set off excessive amounts of firecrackers. Some continue to do so due to their ignorance, unaware of what Matsu has said.
Others do so to ensure the huge profits of the firecracker industry.
However, when the interests of the minority jeopardize the health of the majority, it is believed that Matsu will never bless those responsible for polluting the air with toxins. For those who hurt not only themselves, but also others by doing so, they face karma for doing evil according to Buddhist belief.
Chien Jien-wen is a pediatrician at Changhua Christian Hospital and a director of Taiwan Clean Air Network.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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