Banishing evil spirits, taming wandering ghosts, deity processions, Taiwanese opera and martial arts performances are among the events planned for the 2011 Taipei Xiahai City God Temple Cultural Festival (台北霞海城隍文化季), a month-long event that begins tonight at Dihua Street’s (迪化街) historic Xiahai City God Temple (霞海城隍廟).
The yearly festival is held to celebrate the City God’s (城隍) birthday, which is on the 13th day of the fifth lunar month (June 14 this year). All events are free and open to the public.
“This is a perfect opportunity to show Taipei residents that Taiwan’s folk culture isn’t only to be found in central and southern Taiwan,” said Titan Wu (吳孟寰), a spokesman for the temple.
Photo Courtesy of Xiahai City God Temple
Celebrations get under way tonight with Ghost Buddha (鬼菩薩), a Taiwanese opera performance by Ming Hwa Yuan (Tien) Taiwanese Opera Co (明華園天字戲劇團). It will be shown on a stage in Yongle Square (永樂廣場) beside the temple.
On Tuesday, the temple will perform several rituals to cleanse the locality of evil spirits.
“Before removing the City God from the temple, we have to ensure the community is clean, and that means banishing ghosts and anything else that is impure,” Wu said.
Photo Courtesy of Xiahai City God Temple
“Positioning spirit generals to protect the five earthly temples” (放軍安五營), a ritual in which heavenly generals are placed outside places of worship, will be held on that day to ensure the deity’s safety before its inspection tour, while the “night patrol” (暗訪夜巡), which begins at 5pm on June 12, features “eight generals” patrolling the City God’s territory to banish evil spirits.
The latter ritual, Wu said, provides a unique opportunity to watch these “ghost hunters” in action.
Once the area is cleansed of unwanted spirits, the temple’s City God statue will be removed for its inspection tour (繞境遊行) of Datong District (大同區) — an “energetic and boisterous” (熱鬧) procession complete with the liberal discharge of firecrackers and ritualized performance troupes flanking the statue’s palanquin, Wu said.
Photo Courtesy of Xiahai City God Temple
A number of other folk art performance troupes (陣頭) from across Taiwan will descend on the temple on June 11 for drumming performances, martial arts routines and dragon dances. The entertainment is meant to both attract Taipei City residents to the area and to amuse the deity.
The City God is said to keep a ledger of the good and evil done by mortals, watch over the movements of ghosts and demons in the underworld and protect the people of Datong District, where the temple is located.
Photo Courtesy of Xiahai City God Temple
Photo Courtesy of Xiahai City God Temple
Photo Courtesy of Xiahai City God Temple
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