For the residents of Tamsui, the highlight of the annual Dragon Boat Festival is neither racing dragon boats on the Tamsui River, nor throwing rice dumplings into the river, nor drinking realgar wine (I’d rather have plum wine). Instead, it’s the two-day Tamsui Grand Festival: the “Tamsui Qingshui Patriarch Birthday Procession.”
During these two days, Tamsuian still eat rice dumplings, but many families choose to host feasts for guests on the second day (the day after the Dragon Boat Festival). You can see large trays of chicken drumsticks placed on the ground everywhere along the streets (mouthwatering).
At the same time, during the grand procession, Tamsui is completely closed off to the outside world at specific times, and cars absolutely cannot enter from other counties or cities. Although an old Tamsui native like me can still find a way to sneak in through backroads, I’d rather not drive. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to do something that foolish either! 😀
Where there’s a crowd, vendors will show up.
The photo below shows someone holding a bunch of “definitely” unauthorized cartoon characters (uh, my day job is in patents, so a cold joke is expected). Don’t you think those SpongeBobs look kind of evil?
I’ve always thought SpongeBob is absolutely a demon. Not only did it lock eyes with my camera, but it even surrounded Angry Birds—what are they up to!? As for one corner of the photo, the billboard obscured by the evil SpongeBob is actually from some international company. It had to be covered up.
Basically, you can tell someone’s identity by where they’re standing in the crowd. The photo below was taken on the road near the MRT station, so at least half of these people are pure tourists! If you analyze their behavior, those standing aimlessly on the divider wall are the most touristy of tourists LOL.
From my observation, due to Tamsui’s commercialization, people strolling along Tamsui’s new street (commonly called the old street) have more chances to interact with the “Tamsui Fuyou Temple (Mazu Temple)” located nearby. However, not far away on a hillside, there’s another ancient temple: the “Qingshui Patriarch Temple.” The Patriarch Temple is in a more remote location, requiring physical effort to climb a slope to reach it, so most tourists don’t get much chance to learn about it, making the temple feel a bit lonely.
That said, the government still plans to demolish old houses to build new roads to accommodate more tour buses and tourists, which has sparked plenty of protests. For details, see “Event Photography Record: Tamsui Chong-Jian Street Praise.” But this is just a side note. For the government, there’s never too much construction; for the board of the Qingshui Patriarch Temple, a new road to welcome more visitors is a win-win; for tourists, it’s none of their business; and for local residents, even their complaints go unheard.
*Cough*, I digress.
Regardless of these grievances, every Dragon Boat Festival, the Qingshui Patriarch Temple’s street-closing procession remains Tamsui’s biggest event.
In recent years, more domestic and international temple organizations and groups have joined in, and you can see more foreigners on the streets. Some even carry the divine palanquins, swaying along. Many people now regard this grand event as Tamsui’s carnival.
But as I walk along the streets, I can still feel that the purely religious significance is gradually diminishing with the changing times and environment.
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