Goddess hit and run

It’s been almost two months since my last post, sorry about that.
I feel my life here is quite normal as I’m just studying and kind of have a daily routine. Therefore it’s a bit weird for me to write about my daily life..

There are of course a few exceptions as we were filmed during one of the classes, and then because I’m a foreigner some classmates and I were selected for some extra movie material which basically meant we had to talk to each other about anything and then smile absurdly long for the camera. We got a free lunch as a reward.. ^^

A few days ago Hanwei and I went to Qinshui (Hanwei’s parent’s place)to get blessed by a goddess called matsu.
Legend says she used to be a very good swimmer and saved her brothers during a storm. She went out again to save her dad and never returned. Ever since then she is the protector of fisherman and basically anything that floats or has to do with sea. This also means she is the protector of Taiwan as most people here got here from mainland china and needed her blessing to be able to survive and arrive in Taiwan.

Every year the goddess does a temple walk from the two biggest temples in Taiwan and visits about most of the temples in between.
When she passes a town you can get blessed by kneeling down for her while she sits on her throne and the walkers carry the throne over you.
Sounds quite boring, but as it is in Taiwan I can guarantee you it’s more scary than boring.
The people who wish to be blessed need to stand side by side in a long never ending line while the goddess continues to walk. A lot of people skip the line and this cause the line to constantly shift backwards. So you have to walk backwards while keeping an eye on the goddess and the people in front and behind you so you don’t kill anyone or get killed while walking.
(This would be a lot easier if it wasn’t at 3.a.m.)
The moment of lining up and the goddess having passed over you takes about 10 minutes and then you can do it all over again or call it a day.

Another few days before this there is a special occasion where most Taiwanese go back to their parents and grandparents to visit their ancestors and pray for their wellbeing and clean their graves. It was interesting because they try to keep track of as many ancestors as possible. Meaning if you remember where your dad’s granddad’s dad sister is buried you will also go there and pray.
The most interesting thing I’ve been told, besides it’s kind of mandatory to visit your ancestor’s grave or tomb every year, is that after a few years bodies are dug up again and then cremated and put in an urn. All the urns are gathered in a temple most the time with relatives that are from the same place. This assures enough spaces for new death people to be buried. And it’s a lot easier to visit urns that are all placed together than visit all the graves individually. But for me, the most weird and fascinating thing is that it’s normal to dig up your relatives after a few years and then burn them..

The urns are put into some kind of tombs /temples and one of the urns we had to visit was on the 6th floor.. of course there was no elevator .

I still eat new food every now and again but have tried most of them by now. So we try to stick to our favourite, cheaper food. And eat special food about once or twice a week.
I hope to soon book a trip to Japan.. or well anywhere 
I’ll keep you up to date when something special happens again.

Oh, to get an impression of the goddess walk check the movie below.
Imagine the line up being at 3 a.m. so there is less fuzz and just the goddess and about 80.000 people trying to get blessed..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDT5pKIYM4I

Cheers,