Signs are Pointing Toward a Propitious New Year

The New Year festivities keep marching along.  The last several days have been filled with the sounds and smells that go along with fire crackers and bonfires.  Shops that had been closed for the New Year holiday are now ready to reopen. Before reopening they display an altar with their god, fruits, flowers and incense.  They also provide burners for employees to burn paper money to send on to their deceased  relatives. However, the shop doesn't officially reopen until they set off firecrackers.  The air is filled with the sounds and scents of the New Year.

Early days in the New Year I noticed that several temples had buckets filled with rice and symbolic items on display.

These two photos are of the first two displays that I saw in small local temples.  Each bucket is filled with rice, a mirror, a sword, a ruler, a scale, a pair of scissors, and perhaps a dagger.  I don't think the buckets on the left were complete, because later I found the display on the right which has a banner, and an electric light.  Chia informed me that these are all part of a Taoist ritual.  In my imagination I pictured people marching along and chanting while holding the buckets.

Yesterday, when we walked by the small temple with the red bannered buckets, all the lights were ablaze.

The buckets are on the right and left of this display to the gods.  The women at the temple explained that everything here is in honor of the New Year and the god Tu Di Gong.  They encouraged us to come back at 2 p.m. for the chanting, but we never made it.

Today, however, as David, Taylor and I walked past the Citibank ATM from our first day in Taipei, we heard chanting in that very first temple we visited.

The courtyard leading in to the temple had this huge display of electrically lit rice buckets. There was no marching as I had imagined, but there was chanting.

This small altar is in the center of the rice buckets.  Looking closely we could see food products - rice, tea, apples, cakes, many fruits.  All provided to us on earth by the god Tu Di Gong - the god of the earth.

We walked through this colorful display, through the clouds of incense and into the main chamber where the chanting, accompanied by drumbeats filled the air.

I encourage you to listen to the following videos.  Each one is slightly different.  One is a very measured atonal chant, the other breaks into a more glorious sound with several instruments and differently pitched voices.

We aren't done with this temple yet.  When we left, we walked down the regular sidewalk next to the temple and discovered that the area had been made into a kitchen.

This area is normally a sidewalk next to the temple.  Today it is a kitchen and they plan to serve a lot of people.  We walked by stacks of  ham hocks and fresh vegetables.

These women are washing the dishes.  Have they already served a meal today?

The sidewalk that has been transformed into a kitchen is on the left. The passage on the right is the regular hallway leading into one side of the temple.

And this all happened on the way to the park.  I think it was a highlight of this visit to Taiwan for me.

On the way back from the park we walked by the temple again.  Food prep was still happening, but oh my...........................................a troop of volunteers was dismantling the fabulous display of rice buckets.

Can you see the people dismantling the display?

It looks like everything will be stored until next year.

We still have a few more days of the New Year celebration left.  I wonder what will be in store?  I certainly feel that what we saw today is a symbol that we will have a most propitious New Year.  What are the chances that we would stumble into the final chanting of the celebration, and that within two hours all would be disassembled?  It was all very fortunate in my mind.

The Third Day of the New Year

Traditionally, on the third day of the New Year, the wife of the family returns to her home to visit her own mother.  Since this doesn't apply to any of us, Chia organized a hiking trip for us instead.  She normally doesn't hike during the New Year because of the crowds who swarm to the country.  She made an exception to her usual routine since we were in town.  We took the train for 1 1/2 hours to the Caoling Historic Trail.  We expected to see mountains and the ocean, and to experience the peace and quiet of nature.

As we got off the train, we realized that a few other people had the brilliant idea of escaping from the city.

We followed the crowds to the actual trail head.  After a while, it really was peaceful, and we found ourselves walking alone for much of the time.

We passed this farm on the way to the trail head.  We all agreed that it is very charming, nestled into the base of the mountains.

As we walked along, I discovered that the mountains are very beautiful, and there were surprises along the way ...... a variety of temples.

This is one of my favorite temples.  Who do you suppose built it?  We almost walked right by.

The walk turned out to be a real hike, with many of the Taiwanese staircases that we have come to expect in a mountain hike.

I took this picture about a third of the way up.  It was an excuse to pause and catch my breath.

It was good to have Solomon with us because he liked to check the map and keep us on track.

After what seems like a very long hike, we arrived at the top of the trail.  What a lovely reward.

The ocean!!!!

Exhausted but happy.

And now we have to go from our mountain top pavilion down to the sea!  Yikes.

 

But before we go, there's yet another temple.

The hike down to the bottom seemed very long, but not as exhausting as the hike to the top.  And, we are not yet done with temples.  This is what we find once we arrive at sea level.

This is the biggest, most extravagant temple I have ever seen, tucked between the mountains and the ocean.  DaLi Temple.

We were surprised to find that in honor of the New Year, the temple was offering free food to visitors.  We had bowls of noodles and congee.  What a lovely, unexpected feast.

Of course, I couldn't just eat and run, so here are a few photos of the interior of the temple.  I only explored the first and second floor.  I never made it to the very top.

The arm is of a young girl praying with incense.  I definitely felt like I was intruding, but I wanted to remember this temple.

The god at the top of the photo is on the third level, where I didn't go.

View from the second floor.

This dragon is at the entrance.

From the temple we walked to the train station.  We were fortunate to get seats on the train, because by the time we arrived at Taipei Main Station the train was packed like sardines.  It seems like every one in Taipei had gone to the country for the New Year.

We were only away from our apartment for 12 hours, but it seems like we had been gone for weeks.  We saw so many different aspects of this amazing country, all in a short period of time.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!!

Second Day of the New Year

The first day of the New Year, people go to the temple to honor the gods and their ancestors.  The second day is a day to go out in the country to hike and enjoy nature.  We did not go hiking.  We wanted to avoid the crowds, so we went to Coscto instead.

We had a short bus ride.  There's David standing with the yellow bag.

Next, we took a short walk.  On the way we found the "Solomon" sign.

Yes, there is a Costco in Taipei!

It's pretty much like an American Costco, except when entering you have to go up on an escalator to the appliances and impulse items.

We took the escalator back downstairs to get to the food.

We were surprised to find an entire section dedicated to Tillamook cheese, and ice cream.

When we arrived at Costco, it was pretty quiet.  However, as time passed the crowds arrived and we were only too happy to pay and get out.  Apparently, other people chose to avoid the holiday hikers and come to Costco.

Although we took the bus to Costco, we purchased a good size  load of groceries, so we took a cab back to the apartment.  Other people did the same.  There is a  convenient taxi queue right in front of the store.

And that is how we spent the second day of the New Year.

Breaking News

Check out the toilet tissue packaging to make sure you buy the right kind.

We just learned that we can flush!!!  Our toilet paper that is.  We've been faithfully using the bins for the last 2 weeks, and we just learned that Taiwan has made an agreement with the toilet paper companies to produce paper that easily dissolves.

Life is much better now.

A Sweet Beginning to the New Year

People in Taipei have been preparing for the Chinese New Year for about a week. One day, after a walk, we returned to our apartment building to find that the front door and lobby were decorated for the holiday.

Each side of the front door has a string of red fire crackers.  They will ward off the monster Nian who likes to come around on New Years Eve.

Last night, the Chinese New Years Eve, was family night.  Families stay home to share a dinner together.

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Most small restaurants and shops are closed, and people go to the temples to honor relatives who came before them.  We went to Xingtian Temple, which is one of the larger Taoist temples,  to join the throngs paying respect.

We found ourselves cheek to jowl with crowds of worshipers.  Most were concentrating on their prayers, and it was surprisingly calm.

Behind the center door is the main god of the temple,  Guan Yu, patron saint of businessmen.  The order of prayer is to pray to the god of the heavens, directly behind me, with my camera.  Then pray to Guan Yu at the center door. Next pray to the god in the right door, finally to the god in the left door.  Considering the masses of people this was all done in an orderly fashion.

When we managed to extricate ourselves from the temple, we found ourselves on the sidewalk filled with vendors.  It was a bit of a carnival atmosphere.  Chia treated Solomon to cotton candy - his first.

What a sweet beginning to the New Year.  Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!