A 328-year-old temple in Chiayi City has designed a dozen new charms that it is distributing to temple-goers during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Shuangjhong Temple’s (雙忠廟) charms offer 12 different Taoist spells or blessings, promising success in love, examinations or weight loss, or warding off evils, such as a nagging or cheating spouse or loved one.
Su Chung-hao (蘇中浩), a temple devotee who works in the printing industry, said he made the charms with his good friend Kao Chi-jung (高基榮) as an offering after recovering from an illness.
Photo: Ting Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
The temple is dedicated to the gods of fidelity Chang Hsun (張巡) and Hsu Yuan (許遠).
Built in 1689, or the 28th year of the reign of emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, it is the first and oldest temple in the city, temple general manager Lin Chin-feng (林錦烽) said.
The temple has been making woodblock-printed charms since the Japanese colonial period, said Kao, who is also the director-general of the Chiayi City Mother Tongue Culture and Educational Foundation.
Kao said that he designed the charms to appeal to younger people and help preserve a traditional craft.
Chen Lai-wang (陳來旺), 84, said the new charms were a pleasant reminder of his childhood, when he lived close to the temple and often helped the temple to make charms with his father.
“It is nice to see young people being so creative,” he said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS