More than 100 representatives from five countries are visiting Taiwan to attend a forum on the culture of Matsu, the Chinese goddess of the sea, as well as a variety of activities celebrating the goddess’ birthday, which falls on April 28 this year.
The representatives are from 17 Matsu temples in China, Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
The Matsu cultural groups, which arrived last Thursday, attended an international forum on Matsu culture held on Saturday at the Chenlan Temple in Tachia (大甲鎮), Taichung County. The temple has organized an eight-day pilgrimage in which devotees will carry a Matsu statue around four counties.
Matsu, who watches over fishermen, is mostly worshiped by people in Taiwan and China’s coastal areas.
Matsu’s birthday falls on the 23rd day of the third month in the lunar calendar, and various festival activities are held around the date, although the pilgrimage of the goddess is the most popular.
The Matsu cultural delegations also visited the Fusing Temple in Yunlin on Monday, where the Matsu statue stayed twice during its pilgrimage.
Yang Wen-chung (楊文鐘), president of the Fusing Temple, noted that Matsu followers are scattered around the world and expressed hope that they would “propagate Matsu’s mercy” wherever they live.
Meanwhile, Lin Guoliang (林國良), vice chairman of the Chinese Matsu Cultural Exchange Association, headquartered in China’s Fujian Province, hailed the activities organized by Taiwanese temples and praised the close cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
Some Chinese representatives said they were impressed by the Taiwanese followers.
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