Beowulf Topics-2: Fire Festivals in Shetland (UK) and Taiwan

[Heruler]

I recently bought 2 books in Taiwan which are related to the boat burning festivals. Both are written in Chinese (and in Traditional Chinese script).

(1) 台灣的王爺信仰 (roughly translated as: The Ong-Ia Cult of Taiwan) by Paul R. Katz (an American professor living and teaching in Taiwan, his Chinese name is 康 豹), published by 商鼎文化出版社, Taipei, 1998. ISBN 957-9563-37-3. Professor Katz spent half a year in Tang-Kang to study the festival. An academic research study, it relates the history of the festival. (Publisher's Web site: http://chienhua.com.tw/chienac.htm)

(2) 台灣的王爺廟 (roughly translated as: The Ong-Ia Temples in Taiwan) by 謝宗榮, published by 遠足文化, Taipei, 2006. ISBN 986-7630-69-6. This book has lots of photo pictures of festivals and ship burnings. There is a step-by-step diagram of how a ship for burning is built. A very good survey book on the ship-burning festivals. (Publisher's Web site: http://www.sinobooks.com.tw)

For those who are interested in the Ong-Ia cult, these two books are quite helpful introductory texts.

Heruler

[Heruler]

Hi all,

Here are some pictures taken at a recent fire festival (Burning king's ship 燒王船) in Tangkang 東港, Taiwan. Because of my bandwidth limit in uploading the pictures, I have to select just these few pictures out of many. Hope you can vicariously join the crowd and have a good time.

First is the parade. The fire festival in Shetland, UK, also starts out with a lively parade. The heralders are costumed "ghosts". This is like a carneval.



The boat is being paraded. Because of the power and telephone lines hanging over the streets and a bridge to cross, the masts are not installed until the boat reaches the site.



As the picture below shows, the boat is much larger than the one burned in Shetland. It is not so easy to maneuver through the street.



A large crowd is waiting at the beach, the site for burning the boat. You can see some hang-gliders enjoying themselves too.



As night approaches, another parade of lighted "sedans" carrying the gods to the beach. This scene reminds me of similar night parades at Disney World.



Finally the climax - burning of the king's ship.



Hope you all enjoy the festival.

Heruler

[admin@bagansiapiapi.net]

when this festival celebrated in Taiwan ?

[Heruler]

If my recollection is correct, it was about 3 years ago. Thanks for your new pictures.

Heruler

[admin@bagansiapiapi.net]

Hi Guys,
are you interest to watching the 'burning King's ship' ceremony ?
we'll celebrate this on 30 June - 01 July 2007.

If anyboady interest to visit this ceremony, you can contact us so we can help you to arrange the flight and hotel.
For the event like this, every hotel in Bagansiapiapi will full-booked.
So let us know early...

It's a pleasure for us to welcome you.

Hi Niuc, are you miss your hometown ? come on.....

[niuc]

Hi admin@bagansiapiapi.net

Thanks for the invitation. I have never visited Bagansiapiapi for 16 years already! Time really flies! ....... since most of my friends and relatives are now in Jakarta or somewhere else, and also because it's quite troublesome to visit our hometown.

Hope you all enjoy the coming celebration!

[casey]

More boat burning video clips may be seen at the following "Youtube" sites:

The burning of deity Wang Yeh's boat in Tong Kang, Taiwan

Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhVMow5M ... ed&search=

Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iGyFcel ... ed&search=

Part III
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKirqNwT2CQ

Burning the boat is to burn off all the illnesses and "Wang Yeh" is believed to be God in charge of illnesses.

[admin@bagansiapiapi.net]

hi....
i just upload the video of King Ship burning Ritual on YouTube.
please visit this link also :
http://bagansiapiapi.net/id/streaming.php

also this link , for another chance for our ritual:
http://bagansiapiapi.net/id/galtmii.php

brdgs,
admin@bagansiapiapi.net
[/url]