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Sabtu, 21 April 2012
Tibetan Festivals
Rabu, 04 April 2012
Tin Hau
People in China alawys celebrate Tin Hau.
The Tin Hau festival is celebrated on the 23rd day of the Third Moon (late April, early May). The day is set aside to honour a young girl named Mo Niang. She was re-named Tin Hau, the "Queen of Heaven", and is the "Mother" of boat people and sailors.
Tin Hau was born in Fukien in the year 1093. Legend tells a story that she bid her father and brothers farewell as they went off fishing. She went to sleep and had a dream they were drowning. She flew over the waters on clouds and rescued her family just as they were about to drown.
Tin Hau is also said to have been able to predict storms and sea traveller's fortunes. She died at the age of twenty and received her title shortly afterwards.
There are numerous shrines and temples dedicated to her spirit. On her birthday, the boat people, sailors and those who live on the waterfront, sail to Da Miao (the Great Temple) in Joss HoUse Bay and pay their respects to the goddess, praying for safety in the coming year.
alaways celebrate Tin Hau.
To protect fishermen and seafarers, local people offer up joss
sticks, small sums of money and oranges to the goddess Tin Hau.
During Tin Hau festival, joss sticks, suckling pigs and white wine
are usual offerings.
Tin Hau can forecast the weather and save people from
shipwrecks. However, since the decline of the local fishing industry and advances in meteorology,
the goddess has expanded her role to watching over families. Hong Kong parents often offload the
responsibility of raising their own children to the goddess by making her their godmother.
Local people buy paper spinning wheels which will bring
good luck to their home.
On the festive day, believers perform lion dance and drums,
carry other items and offer them to Tin Hau deity at Tin Hau Temple.
The most famous festivities for Tin Hau birthday happen
in Yuen Long Town with a spectacular parade through the streets. 25 teams
of performers, including lion dancers, dragon dancers and other artists formed a procession.
From the stadium the teams march back to the Tin Hau Temple at Tai Shue Ha,
where tribute is paid to the statue of Tin Hau. This is followed by drawing lots for
the right to carry the most prestigious "Fa Pau" next year.
The Yuen Long parade, in the New Territories,
include colourful floats and lion dances. The procession of parade through the
streets takes about two hours.
The Tin Hau birthday festival culminates in a procession and
is characterised by floral paper offerings known as "Fa Pau".
Tin Hau birthday events are organised by local Celebration Committees
and local Rural Committees.
The Tin Hau festival is celebrated on the 23rd day of the Third Moon (late April, early May). The day is set aside to honour a young girl named Mo Niang. She was re-named Tin Hau, the "Queen of Heaven", and is the "Mother" of boat people and sailors.
Tin Hau was born in Fukien in the year 1093. Legend tells a story that she bid her father and brothers farewell as they went off fishing. She went to sleep and had a dream they were drowning. She flew over the waters on clouds and rescued her family just as they were about to drown.
Tin Hau is also said to have been able to predict storms and sea traveller's fortunes. She died at the age of twenty and received her title shortly afterwards.
There are numerous shrines and temples dedicated to her spirit. On her birthday, the boat people, sailors and those who live on the waterfront, sail to Da Miao (the Great Temple) in Joss HoUse Bay and pay their respects to the goddess, praying for safety in the coming year.
alaways celebrate Tin Hau.
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Hundreds of people rush to light up the first joss sticks and offer up them
to the goddess Tin Hau.
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| Light up joss sticks |
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Oranges, suggestive of immortality and good fortune,
are piled high. Roast suckling pigs protect against ill health and bad luck.
Persimmons represent joy. Pomegranates, with their endless seeds, denote fecundity.
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| Offering to Tin Hau |
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These villagers are carrying a 6-meter high "Fa Pau", floral paper offerings,
for celebration of Tin Hau festival.
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| Carrying Fa Pau |
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The beating of drums is the background music for the fearsome dancers.
Two people wear a colourful paper-mache lion head. With full coordination they
move through graceful gestures, expressing the feelings of the lion.
The lion may be bashful, playful or even angry and the steps of
the performers convey this mood to the audience.
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| Lion dance |
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This lion comes to worship Tin Hau. The lion shall not show its bottom to the goddess so
it has to walk backwards.
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| Lion dance |
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Spectacular parade of lion and dragon dancers goes to the local Tin Hau Temple.
There the village teams collect the "Fa Pau", floral paper offerings,
and perform in the temple yard.
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| Dragon dance |
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Beautiful dragon dance worshipping Tin Hau performed on Tsing Yi island.
In the background, a series of "Pai Lau" or traditional decorative billboards
have been erected.
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| Dragon dance |
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When two communities meet, their lions bow to each other's Tin Hau statues.
Sometimes the lions greet each other and have a dance together before
they move on.
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| Lions |
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A grand procession features golden dragons, colorful lions and unicorns, and participating
teams from local villages and organisations.
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| Dragon dance |
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Tin Hau is worshipped in more than 70 temples in Hong Kong.
Famous temples include the Tin Hau Temple in Stanley, which was restored in
year 2000.
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Dragon Boat Festival
In China people always celebrate dragon boat. This celebrate in the 5th day of the
5th lunar month .
Dragon Boat Festival people in China mean it Duanwu Festival.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, dropped bamboo leaf-wrapped rice cakes into the river to feed Qu Yuan in the afterlife. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat the rice meant to be eaten in Qu Yuan's afterlife.This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
The front of the Cao E Temple, facing east, toward the river. Picture taken on 26 January 2009, in Shangyu, Zhejiang, China.
Although the Qu Yuan origin theory is the most popular, much of Northeastern Zhejiang (Shaoxing, Ningbo and Zhoushan) commemorates Cao E (曹娥) (130 CE - 143 CE) rather than Qu Yuan. Cao E's father Cao Xu (曹盱) was a shaman who presided over local ceremonies in Shangyu in Zhejiang province. In the year 143
CE, while presiding over a ceremony commemorating Wu Zixu during the
Duanwu Festival, Cao Xu accidentally falls into the river. Cao E, in an
act of filial piety, decided to find her father in the river, searching
for three days trying to find him. After five days, she and her father
were both found dead at the river, which they died from drowning. Eight
years later, in 151
CE, a temple was built in Shangyu dedicated to the memory of Cao E and
her sacrifice for filial piety. To this day, a tributary of the Qiantang River is named after Cao E.
Many traditional rituals of the Duanwu Festival emphasize the avoidance of disease. The desire to prevent health hazards associated with the mid-summer months may have been the primary original motive behind the holiday.
Another theory, advanced by Wen Yiduo, is that the Duanwu Festival had its origins in dragon worship. Support is drawn from two key traditions of the festival: the tradition of zongzi, or throwing food into the river, and dragon boat racing. The food may have originally represented an offering to the dragon king, while dragon boat racing naturally reflects reverence of the dragon and the active yang energy associated with it. This combines with the tradition of visiting friends and family on boats.
Another suggestion is that the festival celebrates a widespread feature of east Asian agrarian societies: the harvest of winter wheat. Offerings were regularly made to deities and spirits at such times: in the ancient Yue, dragon kings; in the ancient Chu, Qu Yuan; in the ancient Wu, Wu Zixu (as a river god); in ancient Korea, mountain gods (see Dano (Korean festival)). As interactions between different regions increased, these similar festivals eventually merged into one holiday.
5th lunar month .
Dragon Boat Festival people in China mean it Duanwu Festival.
History about Duanwu Festival
Origin
The Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in ancient China. A number of theories exist about its origins as a number of folk traditions and explanatory myths are connected to its observance. Today the best known of these relates to the suicide in 278 BCE of Qu Yuan, poet and statesman of the Chu kingdom during the Warring States period.Qu Yuan
Main article: Qu Yuan
The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty.A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices.
However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason.
During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is
now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of
Chu. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.It is said that the local people, who admired him, dropped bamboo leaf-wrapped rice cakes into the river to feed Qu Yuan in the afterlife. The rice was wrapped so that fish would not eat the rice meant to be eaten in Qu Yuan's afterlife.This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
Wu Zixu
Main article: Wu Zixu
Despite the modern popularity of the Qu Yuan origin theory, in the former territory of the state of Wu, the festival commemorated Wu Zixu
(526 BCE* – 484 BCE). Wu Zixu was a loyal advisor whose advice was
ignored by the king to the detriment of the kingdom. Wu Zixu was forced
to commit suicide by the king Fuchai, with his body thrown into the river on the fifth day of the fifth month. After his death, in places such as Suzhou, Wu Zixu is remembered during the Duanwu Festival to this day.- It seems that, here, Wu Zixu's birth year is false because Wu Zixu designed and built the city of Suzhou in 514 BCE. Thus, if he were born in 526 BCE, he must be just 12 years old at the time of the construction of Suzhou, which is totally impossible. Actually, the birth year of Wu Zixu is unknown.
Cao E
Pre-existing holiday
Some modern researchers suggest that the stories of Qu Yuan or Wu Zixu were superimposed on a pre-existing holiday tradition. The promotion of these stories over the earlier lore of the holiday seems to have been encouraged by Confucian scholars seeking to legitimize and strengthen their influence at a time when Buddhism, a foreign belief system, was gaining influence in China. The Records of the Grand Historian of that era relate to this.Many traditional rituals of the Duanwu Festival emphasize the avoidance of disease. The desire to prevent health hazards associated with the mid-summer months may have been the primary original motive behind the holiday.
Another theory, advanced by Wen Yiduo, is that the Duanwu Festival had its origins in dragon worship. Support is drawn from two key traditions of the festival: the tradition of zongzi, or throwing food into the river, and dragon boat racing. The food may have originally represented an offering to the dragon king, while dragon boat racing naturally reflects reverence of the dragon and the active yang energy associated with it. This combines with the tradition of visiting friends and family on boats.
Another suggestion is that the festival celebrates a widespread feature of east Asian agrarian societies: the harvest of winter wheat. Offerings were regularly made to deities and spirits at such times: in the ancient Yue, dragon kings; in the ancient Chu, Qu Yuan; in the ancient Wu, Wu Zixu (as a river god); in ancient Korea, mountain gods (see Dano (Korean festival)). As interactions between different regions increased, these similar festivals eventually merged into one holiday.
Duanwu Festival 2012
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