Keelung Ghost Festival
The entire month of July of the lunar calendar is
kind of like Halloween for Taiwan. Ghosts and ancestral
spirits are invited to come out and have a feast.
At the Keelung Paper Lantern Festival, these paper
mache water lanterns are the invitation letters.
When we make these houses, it��s like building a temple.
When you glue these things on, don��t put glue on the
entire backside. We want to make it more lively, so
this is what we do. Do those animals have meanings?
These are animals with auspicious meanings. For example
the cat. Why do we put a cats on here? They have nine
lives, meaning long life.
Our lantern festival was started because of a battle.
People who originally lived in the mountains wanted
to live down here as well, and a battle broke out.
One hundred eight people died but were not properly
buried, basically put into a mass grave. For a period
of time, Keelung was plagued by misfortunes so people
thought it might be the spirits of the dead causing
trouble. Then they decided to dig up the corpses and
enshrine them in a temple. The water lanterns are
to remind us to be sincere in taking care of the deceased
and to remember our ancestors.
Legend has it that after the water lantern festival
began, things calmed down. While all of July is the
time when spirits of the dead come out and play, on
the 15th a huge feast is prepared for them. In addition
to food, figurines traditionally crafted from rice
paste are made to liven up the scene.
Since you��ve gone an invited them here, you can��t
just take them to the night market for a bowl of rice
with stewed pork. You have to prepare a feast. In
Chinese food, color, smell and taste are very important.
But in addition to tasty food, you have to prepare
nice things for them to look at. These are dough figurines
for looking at.
Now made from breadcrumbs and glue, these figurines
can last years and years and years. I think Corey
has a special affection for that black and yellow
one.
Just like you I��ve seen them everywhere, and actually,
once in Wugu I��ve even seen this entire life size
boat built of paper. But I��ve never seen them burned,
I��ve never seen them used, actually. And I never knew
where they came from. So it��s quite interesting to
actually find out that not only is it colorful and
and not just a mock house but it actually all has
meaning.
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