At the end of the 2nd day, all the temple troupes would congregate at the main Matsu Temple and duke it out for a grand prize of $50,000. Feiona’s uncle ran a temple, so I had a chance to tag along. I was excited because they told me one of the members was going to stick a 2 story high needle into his tongue, and also there were going to be jitongs – Taoist spirit mediums that would go into often violent trances.
I set out on motorcycle around 4:00 pm and followed our temple members to town. The troupe was comprised of a few parts: a leading truck with our banner, then about 8-10 performers, a following truck full of family and friends, and finally, the infamous hand-carved penismobile.
Our performers comprised of 4 people carrying a two mini sedan chairs, a spirit medium, and a few firecracker throwers. During the parade itself the performances are quite tame - whenever we passed by an offering, they would start blasting techno-trance music while the sedan chair carriers danced back and forth facing the offering table. Two people constantly threw firecrackers at the performer's feet while they danced. Then the penismobile - handcarved by Feiona's uncle - would come along and ejaculate water onto the crowd. When I stopped to snap a photo, they aimed the penis toward me and jizzed right on my face! I did not know how to react - I hope that it symbolizes a blast of prosperity for the coming year. (no pun intended.)
I then took off to watch some other performances, which included a few child drummers, more techno-trance blasting sedan chairs, and the bajiajiang - the eight guards. Wearing demonic makeup and each wielding different weapons, they walk in "tiger steps" and are supposed to capture or ward off evil spirits.
After another excellent seafood meal, we headed to the Matsu Temple to see the final performances. Unfortunately, it was jam-packed with people even bringing ladders to sit on. I barely managed to see anything, let alone snap and decent photos. I finally settled with scaling the temple walls and watching the whole thing from atop and afar.
The festivities kicked off with firecrackers going off for 10 minutes, and then the water-spraying dragon passed through. (i guess it's a more subtle version of the penismobile) Next came the Qiye Baye - a staple of Taiwanese temple festivals - two deities represented in giant puppet form, also here to ward off evil sprits. After another 2 rounds of Handan bombing, the performances officially began.
It wasn't all that different than the daytime performances, except that the jitongs were allowed to go into their trances and to inflict wounds on their bodies with spiked clubs and other weapons. To simply things, the whole point of this is to prove that they are truly possessed by a deity and do not feel the pain.
We waited and waited and waited, but Feiona's uncle's temple troupe never showed up. It was already way past midnight, and exhausted, we went home. The next day, I found out that since there was prize money this year, each temple took its time to perform and the schedule was pushed way back. Our temple's jitong could not wait anymore and became possessed by an evil spirit. He ran around wildly and started to push the guy who had the 2-story high needle in his tongue. Screaming in pain, the needle guy turned around to retaliate but the others quickly subdued the jitong and dragged him back to the temple and tied him down. It took a few hours for the spirit to leave his body, and they never made it back to the Matsu temple.
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