China News Service, Meizhou Island, Fujian, February 29th (Ye Qiuyun and Ma Bingrong) On the 26th, Su Lixiang, the advocate of Wuji Tianci Palace in Pingtung, Taiwan, led an incense delegation to Meizhou Mazu Temple to offer incense; on the 27th, the chairman of the temple construction committee of Haotian Palace in Taichung, Taiwan Wang Jingxuan, together with Cai Zhenhao, the master of the Harem Palace in Wuqi Town, Taichung, and Xiao Mingwei, the deputy chairman, led a delegation to Meizhou Mazu Temple to offer incense... After the Spring Festival, Fujian Meizhou Mazu Temple welcomed many groups of Taiwanese Mazu temple representatives and believers .
On February 27, Lin Jinzan (centre), chairman of the board of directors of the Meizhou Mazu Temple in Putian City, Fujian Province, accompanied Wang Jingxuan, the chairman of the temple construction committee of the Haotian Temple in Taichung, Taiwan, and Cai Zhenhao, the master of the harem palace in Wuqi Town, Taichung, and the deputy chairman Xiao Mingwei and his party paid three tributes to Mazu.
Photo by Ma Bingrong
Lin Mengrong, a Taiwanese professor at the Mazu Cultural Research Institute of Putian University, believes that after the festival, a large number of Taiwanese people go to Meizhou Mazu Temple to pay homage to their ancestors and offer incense, out of gratitude for Mazu’s blessing.
Lin Mengrong crossed the sea and came to Fujian for development in 2018, and formed an indissoluble bond with the "Hometown of Mazu". Since then, she has started research in the fields of Mazu culture, folk beliefs and national history.
Lin Mengrong said that after the COVID-19 epidemic subsided, Taiwanese Mazu believers who were interrupted from visiting the Mazu Temple in Meizhou due to the epidemic have put it on their agenda to pay homage to their ancestors.
For thousands of years, Mazu culture, with its spiritual connotation of "establishing morality, doing good, and having great love", has become a spiritual link connecting compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese.
"People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have the same roots and gods have the same origin." In Taiwan, there are as many as 16 million Mazu believers, accounting for about two-thirds of Taiwan's population.
According to legend, Mazu’s birthday is on the 23rd day of the third lunar month.
"Every year in the third month of the lunar calendar, Mazu palaces and temples across Taiwan hold lively pilgrimage activities around the border, which is vividly called the 'March Madness Mazu'. This is a special love and promise for Mazu by the Taiwanese people." In Lin Mengrong It seems that around Mazu Christmas Day, more and more Taiwanese believers will go to Meizhou Mazu Temple to pray for blessings.
When Cai Zhenhao went to Meizhou Mazu Temple to pay homage to his ancestors and offer incense, he expressed his hope to jointly promote cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and promote the vigorous development of Mazu culture.
"It is expected that around the third month of the lunar calendar, Mazu will be invited to return to Meizhou Mazu Ancestral Temple to pay homage to her ancestors and offer incense." (End)