Temples in Penghu County are displaying a variety of turtle-shaped figures made of cabbage, edible seaweed and beer bottles to celebrate Lantern Festival today.
The practice, known as qi gui (乞龜), which literally means begging the turtles, is part of the Lantern Festival, which sees even more lively participation in Penghu than during the Lunar New Year, the county’s National Scenic Area Administration Web site said.
Each year, in the days leading up to the Lantern Festival, temples produce turtle-shaped figures made of different goods, such as gold or rice, that people can take home as promises of safety, health and good fortune throughout the year, the Web site said.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
People who take home these items must thank the deities the following year by returning even larger amounts of goods to the temple as the Lantern Festival approaches.
The practice has seen the “turtles” grow in size every year and become the most “fertile” kind of religious offering, the Ministry of Culture said on its Web site.
This year, the Jing Hai Temple (靖海宮) in Magong City’s Wukan Borough (烏崁) made a turtle out of locally grown cabbage. It also created an ocean-themed turtle made of coral and different shells.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
The Long De Temple (龍德宮) in Baisha Township’s (白沙) Chihkan Village (赤崁), which possesses the rights to harvest the wild seaweed on Gupo Island (姑婆嶼), made a 2,376kg turtle out of edible seaweed. It plans to distribute it later to several disadvantaged groups.
Meanwhile, the Jhu Wang Temple (朱王廟) in Magong’s Shihcyuan Borough (石泉) built a turtle out of beer bottles. Created by artist Chen Fu-chi (陳扶氣), it required 150 cases of beer to make.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
CHINA illness surge: Of 88 travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macau with respiratory symptoms who were encouraged to get tested upon arrival, 70.6% had the flu Two hundred and sixty people with COVID-19 were hospitalized and 31 deaths related to the virus were reported last week — the highest numbers in four weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that cases are expected to peak next month. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said that of the 260 people hospitalized last week with moderate to severe COVID-19, 98 percent had not received the Omicron XBB.1.5-adapted COVID-19 vaccine. Among the people hospitalized this year, 78 percent were aged 65 or older, while most of the those who were hospitalized or died have or had
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
RSS