BeiGang's Mazu Festival 北港朝天宫
For most of the year BeiGang (北港) is a sleepy little town tucked away at the southern end of YunLin County (雲林縣). Residents live a simpler life than their big city countrymen and the pace of daily life is slower and far more relaxed. Built around a small urban center the town proper opens out to large expanses of farmland and eventually into the ocean. Yet this place is anything but a has-been or never-was city in the Taiwanese cultural landscape. Once a year BeiGang welcomes a massive party for Mazu (媽祖 also spelled Matsu), the goddess of the sea, at the city's ChaoTian Temple (朝天宮). Pilgrims arrive from all over Taiwan with their local temple's Mazu in tow, and the city swarms with gangs of temple devotees detonating fireworks, preparing epic feasts, and just taking in the incredible show. The city's traditional downtown is roughly bounded by HuaNan Road (also called ZhongYang Highway), DaTong Road, and the river. The temple itself creates what is essentially an enormous ...