Thousands of people raced to offer the first incense stick at some of the nation’s largest temples early yesterday morning to pray for good fortune and prosperity in the Year of the Tiger.
The incense race is a Lunar New Year tradition. It is believed that those who put the first incense sticks in temple burners will have the best luck of the year. Traditionally, the event takes place at 11pm on Lunar New Year’s Eve, which people in ancient times regarded as the beginning of a day.
Crowds gathered in front of the nation’s best-known temples, including the Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) in Dajia (大甲), Taichung County; Feng Tien Temple (奉天宮) in Chiayi; and Chao Tien Temple (朝天宮) in Yunlin. People pushed through the doors as soon as they were opened and sprinted to the burners.
PHOTO: NICKY LOH, REUTERS
The temples had prepared red envelopes and gifts as rewards.
The first day of the Lunar Year, however, was disrupted by a fire in Jian (吉安), Hualien County.
Two firemen were injured in the blaze, which destroyed three wooden houses before it was finally extinguished at 3am. No deaths were reported. The fire department was investigating the cause of the fire.
Meanwhile, traffic clogged the national freeways, as the sunny weather encouraged people to travel. The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau said heavy traffic appeared in the sections between Neili (內壢) and Pinjen (平鎮) on Freeway No. 1 and Nangkang Interchange (南港) on Freeway No. 5 at around 10am. The congestion eased by noon, before picking up again at 2pm and then easing two hours later.
Today is the second day of the New Year, the traditional time for married daughters to return to their parents’ houses.
The bureau said heavy traffic was expected on both southbound and northbound lanes of the freeways and that total traffic volume on all the freeways was expected to reach 2.6 million vehicles.
More than 3 million vehicles are expected on the freeways tomorrow. To help ease the crush, the bureau will allow motorists to drive on the shoulders of the road between 7am and 7pm, including the sections between Neili and Jhongli (中壢) on Freeway No. 1, between Dashi (大溪) and Longtan (龍潭) as well as between Wufong (霧峰) and Jhongtou (中投) on Freeway No. 3.
The bureau urged motorists to check traffic updates on its Web site at 1968.freeway.gov.tw before setting off.
Meanwhile, the Central Weather Bureau said that the arrival of a second cold air mass will lower temperatures today. Chances of showers or torrential rain were high in the north, northeast and east as well as in the outlying islands and the mountainous areas in the south.
In other news, about 40,000 Chinese tourists were expected to visit Taiwan between Saturday and next Sunday, tourism bureau officials have said.
The influx of visitors helped double hotel occupancy rates to more than 80 percent from last year for the Lunar New Year holidays, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
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