Wang Yeh boat burning festival still a big draw

Full-time residents also put aside their daily jobs to get involved in various tasks, including building Wang Yeh's boat and helping organize specific rituals related to the festival.

“I'd feel bad if I did not get involved in this, particularly during the rituals of evoking and seeing off Wang Yeh,” said 41 year-old Su Po-wen, who has served in the festival as a “Ban Tou” — the title of public officials responsible for maintaining order during the rituals — since he was five years old.

According to Chen, the Wang Yeh ceremony was initiated by seven communities of early settlers in Donggang centuries ago and some of their descendants still handle the same tasks in the traditional ceremony today.

Huang Feng-chi, 61, said he inherited his job as a sedan carrier from his grandfather at the age of six and has done the same job since then. He sees the job as an honor that will earn him Wang Yeh's direct blessing.

The eight-day festival opened this year as always with a mysterious and complicated ritual on the beach of Jhenhai Park. Five Wang Yeh gods joined the one enshrined at the temple for a four-day procession around Donggang before they boarded their wooden ship on which they “sailed” around the fishing port's streets to expel evil spirits and plagues.

On the seventh day, the temple offered the gods a feast of 108 Chinese dishes accompanied by fine wine and liquor to thank them for warding off evil during the processions over the previous week.

The ritual culminated on Oct. 17 when the elaborately carved wooden boat was set on fire to symbolize the Wang Yehs setting off to heaven, taking with them the evil spirits and diseases they absorbed during the processions.

After Saturday's ceremony, there was only silence. No gongs and drums were allowed to make a sound, nor were bells, drums, local opera music or fireworks permitted, to prevent the “the gods from returning to Donggang” Chen said.

He explained that any festive sounds might have misled the Wang Yehs into thinking that the worshippers actually wanted them — and the evil spirits leaving with them — to stay.

Also, no fishing activities will be allowed in the three days following the ceremony to “prevent fishing boats from colliding with Wang Yeh's boat,” Chen said.

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