Elaborate ceremonies and pop concerts have been launched across the nation to “satiate hungry ghosts,” or “good brethren,” during the Ghost Festival weekend.
Starting yesterday evening, the country’s famous Keelung Mid-Summer Ghost Festival went into full swing with a street parade of floats decorated with giant lanterns.
The lanterns, each inscribed with a family name to bless the offspring, were scheduled to be released into the sea at about midnight last night to show water ghosts the way to the offerings that have been laid out for them on land.
The Liu-Tung-Tu family association, which is hosting the festival this year, said it hoped thousands of spectators would attend the celebrations.
Also this weekend, the nation’s largest charity, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, holds four free performances that interpret the sutras at Taipei Arena in Taipei City.
With more than 2,000 singing and dancing Tzu Chi followers depicting Buddhist-associated images, such as water drops and lotuses, the presentations are aimed at encouraging personal introspection during the Ghost Festival, according to Tzu Chi.
“By repenting, our minds become purified, and thus we can further give rise to a heart of goodness,” Tzu Chi founder Dharma Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師) said.
In Yunlin County, the festival takes on a pop-culture flavor, as more than five punk and metal bands have been invited to “rock the dead” at the Huwei Township Ghost Festival today.
Lee Ming-yue (李明岳), director of the county’s cultural affairs, said he hoped the Halloween-like celebrations would appeal to the younger generation.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all