Celebrations at the Taipei Confucius Temple to mark the 2,558th birthday of the great sage today were postponed as Super Typhoon Jangmi approached.
The classical bayi (八佾) will be performed next Sunday instead.
The temple had anticipated that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would attend today’s celebrations, but the Presidential Office announced last night that he would not join the festivities because of the typhoon.
If Ma attends next Sunday, he will be the first president to participate in the ceremony at the temple. The late dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) visited the temple one day before the ceremony in 1968, temple officials said.
PAYING RESPECTS
Ma was to pay his respects today to the philosopher by burning incense and presenting an inscription tablet to the temple.
Each year, the temple performs the liuyi (六佾), a ritual performed to pay respects to feudal barons, to celebrate Confucius’ birthday. This year, however, it plans to perform the bayi, which is performed to pay respects to an emperor.
Some Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei city councilors had condemned the city government for inviting Ma to attend the ceremony as another example of “fawning” over the president.
CHANGE IN RITUAL
“The Taipei City Government decided to upgrade the ritual dance from the liuyi dance to the bayi one month ago to worship ‘Emperor Ma’ and gathered 70 students from Taipei Dalung Elementary School to practice the dance everyday,” DPP Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said.
The liuyi requires 36 elementary school boys to perform the ritual, while the bayi, which is composed of 96 different postures, requires 64 performers, the temple said.
Taipei’s Civil Affairs Department Commissioner Huang Lu ching-ru (黃呂錦茹) denied that the bayi was to be performed specifically for Ma.
She said the department decided to present the dance to celebrate the completion of a restoration project of the temple earlier this month.
The temple had expanded the ceremony and performed the bayi before — in 2001 — to greet the coming of the 21st century, she said.
GUESTS
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) will preside over the ceremony today, and several hundred people, including diplomats, foreign guests and local residents, will witness “one of the most orthodox Confucius ceremonies” in the world, the Civil Affairs Department said.
The department will prepare 100 guest passes for those who wish to witness the ceremony in front of the temple before the ceremony begins at 6am. The temple will be closed to visitors during the ceremony between 6am and 8am.
A live broadcast will be shown in front of the temple for those who aren’t able to enter the temple.
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