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Hakka festival celebrates a rich and vibrant culture

A sculpture of a 'divine pig' sits outside Taipei City Hall, where the annual Taipei Hakka Memorial Ceremony took place yesterday. The sculpture is one of the entries in a divine pig sculpture contest. PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES

With a lively dragon dance and cheerful Hakka folk songs, the annual Taipei Hakka Memorial Ceremony began at Taipei City Hall yesterday, filling the city with the joys of Hakka worship rituals and scrumptious Hakka food.

Hundreds of people flocked to the Taipei City Hall Square yesterday to attend the ceremony, which culminated in a wash of color and noise.

The festival serves as a memorial for the Hakka warriors who died fighting for their land during Qing Dynasty rule over Taiwan.

Taiwan's Hakka hold the annual festival during the seventh lunar month, and there are Yimin temples in most Hakka cultural centers throughout the nation.

The ceremony is also known for its unique custom of sacrificing "spirit pigs," which are traditionally grown to a huge size before being slaughtered. Today's ceremonies often use likenesses of pigs instead of the real thing.

Addressing the ceremony, Taipei City Bureau of Hakka Affairs chairman Huang Cheng-chong (黃正宗) said that the ceremony's rituals are in keeping with the traditional spirit of the Hakka people.

"We also incorporated traditional events with creative ideas to attract younger generations of both the Hakka community and non-Hakka people," he said.

A 9m-high wall made up of red and yellow lanterns showed the words "Yimin" (義民), referring to Hakka warriors during the Qing Dynasty, towered over the ceremony site. A total of 11 Yimin Temples from Hakka towns in Taiwan transferred to the temporary altar at Taipei City Hall.

In addition to stalls selling Hakka food, an area for traditional Hakka sports competitions and a series of folk song performances by 38 Hakka youth chorus groups, over 2,000 members from the Hakka community participated in the "food offering" custom at Songshan High School.

The custom is a sacrificial ceremony preserved in the Hakka community. Every year, several households prepare cooked dishes and carry them to the ceremony to honor the Yimin spirits at the temple. The offering goes on through the entire year with several households coming each day to make the sacrifice.

"The festival presents a spectacular altar, the orthodox god-greeting process, and a great many different Hakka groups and organizations from different corners of Taiwan," said Lin Hui-chun (林惠純) of the Taipei City Bureau of Hakka Affairs.

There are several Yimin temples in Taiwan, but the most famous is situated in Hsinpu (新埔) Township.

This temple is not only the sacrificial center for 15 villages, it also attracts followers from all over Taiwan and overseas, and has become a center of Hakka religious belief.

The ceremony runs through 8pm tonight in front of Taipei City Hall. For more information on the ceremony events, visit the bureau's Web site at http://www.hakka.taipei.gov.tw
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