The Confucius Temple in southern Tainan, Taiwan’s first temple dedicated to Confucius, held a ceremony to celebrate the birthday of the Chinese politician and philosopher yesterday, which was Teacher’s Day in Taiwan.
The ceremony, which began at 5am and is held every year, marked the birth of Confucius 2,569 years ago and followed an ancient tradition that has remained unchanged for more than 2,000 years, the temple’s cultural foundation said.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) presided over the ritual while hundreds of people looked on.
Photo: CNA
One of the rites was a formation dance in which 36 children lined up in six rows and six columns to pay respect to Confucius.
The Confucius Temple in Tainan is the only institution in Taiwan that still practices the tradition of offering three animal sacrifices — a goat, a pig and an ox — to worship Confucius, the foundation said, adding that other Confucius temples present the three sacrifices, but replace the animals with pastry in animal shapes.
However, the practice of plucking the hair around the eyes and ears of the sacrificed ox, a folk custom thought to provide wisdom, was canceled, it said.
Photo: Courtesy of the Pingtung County Government
It is not safe for visitors to enter the building where the sacrifices were held, because it suffered structural damage in an earthquake three years ago, the foundation said, adding that maintenance on the building is expected to be completed next year.
Confucius is regarded as a role model for teachers.
Tainan’s Confucius Temple, built in 1666, is the first temple dedicated to Confucius in Taiwan and has been restored more than 30 times because of damage caused by wars or natural disasters, according to the Tourism Bureau.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS