The Taichung Post Office is partnering with Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) in Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲) to release a commemorative stamp folio in honor of the beginning of the annual Dajia Matsu Pilgrimage (大甲媽祖遶境) on Sunday next week.
This is the eighth year the two have worked together to release a commemorative folio.
Due to high demand in previous years, the post office has doubled the number of limited-edition folios to 10,000.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The folio, which is priced at NT$168 per set, includes stamps of common members of the dintao (陣頭) — performance troupes that traditionally lead Taoist temple parades — as well as postcards of cartooned figures, including the goddess of the sea Matsu (媽祖).
The folios are to be sold at the post office’s branches from Tuesday next week after undergoing a “crossing fire” (guohuo, 過火) ritual, traditionally performed to symbolize purification, at the temple on Monday.
The post office is also to set up booths in front of its Dajia Miaokou branch across the street from the temple on Saturday next week and on April 16, when Matsu’s statue returns to the temple, Taichung Post Office assistant manager Huang Chien-ming (黃建銘) said.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
It has also set aside 100 folios with serial numbers considered to be lucky, such as 00168 and 01688, to be sold at NT$1,000 for charity.
The proceeds from the charity folios would be donated to an orphanage in Dajia District set up by the Dajiama Social Welfare Foundation, organizers said.
Sales of these folios have already begun and more than 70 were sold in less than one week, Huang said.
The most popular serial numbers are those that include a six, an eight or 168, which sounds like yilufa (一路發, “fortune all the way”), Taichung Post Office deputy director Yu Su-chen (尤素珍) said.
Some Matsu devotees who are to participate in the parade have purchased folios with serial numbers including 168 to wish the pilgrimage success, she said.
Folios with repetitive numbers, such as 06666, have been popular among stamp collectors, Yu said, adding that some also chose serial numbers that matched their license plates.
A pomelo farmer for whom the post office has helped sell fruits in the past purchased five of the charity sets last year, Yu said.
This year, the farmer has purchased the folios with the serial numbers 00001 and 00168, she said.
A dintao flag-bearer purchased all of the folios with serial numbers from 00002 to 00008, excluding 00004, she added.
Although most of the charity folios have been sold, the post office has kept two, with the serial numbers 08888 and 09999, to be sold on Monday at the “crossing fire” ceremony, Huang said.
In related news, Gongtian Temple (拱天宮) in the Baishatun (白沙屯) area of Miaoli County’s Tongsiao Township (通霄) is to begin its annual Matsu pilgrimage on April 8.
This year, the Taiwan Railways Administration has teamed up with the temple for the first time for a new train service that is to run daily between Jhunan Township (竹南) and Changhua County.
The service, which was launched on Monday and is to be offered for three months on a four-car train decorated with photographs from previous pilgrimages, which have been held for two centuries.
More than 45,000 people have already signed up for this year’s event, organizers said.
During the 10-day pilgrimage, devotees are to follow Gongtian Temple’s Matsu statue to Chaotian Temple (朝天宮) in Yunlin County’s Beigang Township (北港) before returning to Miaoli.
Additional reporting by Cheng Ming-hsiang
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