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Tainan ‘Incense Presentation’ Festival

Tainan ‘Incense Presentation’ Festival


Tainan was the first port of call for immigrants during the heyday of Chinese migration to Taiwan. In days past, every year on the 28th of (lunar calendar) April, the faithful gathered in Tainan to ask the Lifu, Chifu, Wufu and their wives to make their sacred round of worship. They would not begin traveling until the 28th of (lunar) June, setting out first by boat from Anping Harbor and following the Mashagou coastline to Wangye Harbor along Jishui Stream. Both water and land routes were followed once coastal roads were opened. The Lords’ land route followed today’s Zhongyang Highway, arriving in Beimen after crossing Zengwen Stream and passing through Xigang. After receiving a formal welcome by the town, the idols were installed at today’s Little Ximen’s Lianghuang Temple (dedicated principally to the worship of Baosheng Dadi), where altars were set up to receive the prayers of the faithful. On the day before their departure, the Lords would be carried on a circuit around the city. The return trip home was primarily by water. Today, Lianghuang Temple still retains the censer used for burning incense for the Five Lords of Nankunshen and ‘luguan’ paper from one such circuit made during the early 20th century. The Japanese administration on Taiwan effectively ended the Incense Presentation Festival by 1915 in the wake of security concerns following the Tapani Incident, and it has not been held since.


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