During the early hours of Tuesday morning, Tainan celebrated the 2,571st anniversary of the birth of Confucius by holding an ancient sacrificial ritual at the city’s Confucius Temple, also known as the “first academy of Taiwan.” Many members of the public came to experience the tradition, including a group of exchange students from the Czech Republic. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event’s organizers canceled the practice of plucking the hairs around the eyes and ears of a sacrificed ox (which is believed to generate wisdom, according to folk tradition), and replaced it with a tree-planting ceremony to commemorate the completion of a restoration project at the temple.
Aside from the hair plucking, the traditional ceremony was carried out as normal, with Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che acting as Master of Rites and students from Tainan Municipal Jhongyi Elementary School lined up in six rows and six columns to perform a liuyi (six-row) dance to pay respect to Confucius. The ceremony commenced at the crack of dawn at 5am and lasted for approximately one hour.
All of the participants were wearing masks to comply with pandemic prevention measures and, although the crowds were smaller than in previous years, a sizeable number of people came to observe the traditional rites. In addition to students from Tainan Municipal Jhongyi Elementary School, a group of Czech exchange students studying Taiwanese history at Tunghai University attended the ceremony wearing masks embossed with the national flags of Taiwan and the Czech Republic to experience a unique aspect of Taiwanese culture.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報劉婉君
(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)
台南市各界週二清晨在「全台首學」孔廟，舉行孔子誕辰兩千五百七十一週年釋奠典禮，不少民眾到場觀禮，還有捷克交換生也來感受傳統的祭孔，而受到疫情影響，主辦單位今年取消拔智慧毛活動，改以植樹紀念孔廟古蹟修復工程完工。
台南祭孔依古禮進行，由台南市長黃偉哲擔任正獻官，忠義國小佾生演出「六佾舞」，釋奠典禮於清晨五時開始，歷時約一小時。
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報劉婉君
因應防疫，所有參與人員均戴著口罩，現場觀禮民眾雖較往年略減，但仍有不少人前往觀禮，忠義國小也帶領學生參加，其中還有多位到台灣學習台灣歷史的東海大學捷克交換生，也戴著有台灣與捷克國旗的口罩來體驗台灣文化。
(自由時報劉婉君)
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報劉婉君
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