Aug. 2 was the second day of activities in the Dasi Cultural Festival, and the big draw of the day was the spinning top prize competition, which attracted a lot of people to register and take part. Attending the event, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan smiled as he recalled when he was little he too enjoyed making and playing with spinning tops. Cheng quipped that these days he is so busy that he finds himself “spinning like a top” every day, so he is still living a “spinning-top life.”
Cheng said that Dasi is one of the main cradles of Taiwan’s woodcraft culture, and that playing spinning tops is part of Dasi’s traditional woodworking culture. He noted that Dasi is home to the Mei-Hwa Elementary School spinning top team and that camphor wood, which is used for making tops, is an important facet of Dasi’s wood industry. Cheng said that in future the local authorities would promote spinning-top activities as a means of preserving Dasi’s spinning-top traditions, woodcraft culture and other local charms.
Activities around the Dasi Cultural Festival will go on for three weeks. This past weekend has been a high point of the activities, coinciding with the weeklong pilgrimage to celebrate the birthday of the deity Guan Yu. As well as the Guan Yu birthday pilgrimage itself, there were demonstrations of face-painting and drawing of the deity’s features, and of traditional dough-figure making. There were performances by the Yuemei Community’s flower drum ensemble and a brass quintet from the Taoyuan Symphonic Band, among others, not to mention a mini-pilgrimage children’s camp.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
Photo: Lin Chin, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者林近
「大溪文藝季」八月二日為第二天活動,重頭戲「打陀螺拿好獎」吸引許多民眾報名參加。桃園市長鄭文燦出席活動時笑說,他小時候也喜歡做陀螺、打陀螺,現在每天也像陀螺般、忙碌得「團團轉」,仍是過著「陀螺人生」。
鄭文燦表示,大溪是台灣木器文化的重要發源地,「打陀螺」更是大溪傳統木藝文化的一部分,大溪不僅有著名的美華國小陀螺隊,製作陀螺的樟木也是大溪重要的木業;未來將藉由陀螺活動的推廣,保存大溪的陀螺文化、木器文化等特色。
「大溪文藝季」活動為期三週,八月七日到九日進入了活動高潮的「聖誕遶境週」,有關聖帝君聖誕遶境、神面彩繪、民俗捏麵人、月眉社區花鼓陣和桃園交響管樂團銅管五重奏等表演,另有迷你遶境兒童體驗營。
(自由時報記者林近)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its