This time, it was the Nantzu Baosheng Dadi Festival 2008 楠梓保生大帝慶典 celebrating the birthday of Baosheng Dadi, or the Great Emperor Who Preserves Life, also known as the God of Medicine.
Much smaller than Mazu, but only slightly less explosive, this festival had a few things I had never seen before.
Chicken sacrifice. A man danced with a chicken after dipping it's head in something at the altar. Then, when he finished his dance, he threw the chicken as hard as he could under the altar. The chicken was twitching for a while until they took it away. I probably ate it later.
There are always dragon dances at festivals. However, this time there was a cow dance, the funniest thing I have ever seen at a festival. These "cows" came in and the 2 boys had to control them. The boys would beat them to herd them but the "cows" were crazy and kept running and plowing into the crowd. They even plowed the main priest.
We were even offered dinner by the temple staff and got to really mingle with the local crew.
Here are my 5 fave shots from the day. More are here.
Dragon
God
Feather from priest's hat
Some of the local crew
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