Happy Birthday Matsu

Matsu is the indigenous goddess of the sea, and due to the country's reliance on the sea/ocean and fishing, she has become the patron deity of Taiwan.  She is worshiped in both Buddhism and Taoism as a protector of fishermen and sailors. Every year in late March or early April (the 23rd day of the 3rd lunar month, whenever that falls in a given year), these religions celebrate her birthday.  One of the birthday traditions for Matsu in central Taiwan is a 9-day walking procession from Taichung (Dajia) to Chiayi (Xingang) and back. The procession is greeted in major cities in Taiwan with fireworks and flocks of people longing to see/touch/or lay-down under the goddess as she passes through.  The people were tightly packed, the fireworks were painfully loud, but I made it through and touched her "chair" (which should turn my luck around!).

Hundreds of people crowd in front of the temple on "Yellow Brick Road" awaiting Matsu's arrival.

This week at work I graduated from a title I had forgotten I still held, "new girl".  I have been here so long now that I had forgotten my immediate school (of three teachers) has not seen any changes since my arrival, but this week we welcomed a new teacher into our midst.  When the transitional period has ended we will have an all-girl teaching staff in Homei.

The big social events of the week centered around what we call the Taiwanniversary, which is, as it sounds, the anniversary of being in Taiwan.  Two of my close friends celebrated their coinciding Taiwanniversaries (a one-year and two-year celebration) with a night out in Changhua and a night out in Yuanlin.  The thing that is amazing about these anniversary parties is that they show us teachers not just surviving in Taiwan, but loving Taiwan and choosing to stay here.

It's time for a little small-talk, I'm thinking 'weather'.  I know, it may not be the most interesting thing to think about, but if you are in the US (particularly the midwest) right now you are probably thinking "It is April, why is it snowing?", and I'm over here thinking "will this rain ever end?".  I love the rain, but you quickly find that it is more enjoyable when you have some means of avoiding it (such as staying indoors or driving in a car with a roof rather than a scooter), and it rained on most of the days in the last week and a half, so I am ready for it to end (which is unfortunate for me since the rainy season supposedly hasn't even started yet).

This is how we combat the rains in Taiwan.