“Coming-of-sixteen” (做十 六歲), a tradition unique to Tainan in which teenagers take part in a ceremony to celebrate their 16th birthday, was held at several temples in Tainan City yesterday. A number of Japanese media outlets were also invited to witness the celebrations.
The celebration is traditionally held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which this year fell on Aug. 23.
Among the participating temples, the Kailong Temple (開隆宮) is the most well-known for staging the coming-of-age celebration.
Photo: CNA
Former Tainan mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) promoted the festivity by inviting all the temples in the city to participate.
The celebration subsequently became so popular that some temples in the city also hold coming-of-age celebrations for Christian residents.
Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) yesterday attended several coming-of-age celebrations at different temples.
The rituals in the coming-of-age celebrations are rather simple; participants have to crawl under the offering table and burn money for the immortals, Tainan residents said.
Young adults who have completed the rites then parade through streets of Tainan in traditional costumes on horseback, they said.
Residents said the coming-of-age ritual is celebrated in Tainan at the age of 16 because centuries ago child workers were paid half the adult salary until the age of 16.
When the children turned 16, parents would hold a feast for their employers, their family and friends to announce the good news.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS