Tag Archives: hsinpu

These are shots from last weekend at Yimin Temple, Hsinpu, Taiwan. Ghost Month just ended passed its halfway mark and a major holiday around this time is the Yimin Hakka Festival, a time of remembering ancestors who fought a series of military victories in Taiwan. You can see more about the history of the festival on Culture.TW.

Unfortunatley, I caught the tail end of the Yimin celebration. The main altar for the temple which honors the ancestors was being carried out with much fanfare to go to nearby Jhubei for a large concert.

Above left: A woman takes part in an aerial silk show during the Jhubei concert. A large altar was set up for this performance and aimed at honoring the ancestors’ visit from the temple. This show was full of huge extravagant performances and was completely free for those in attendance – I was lucky enough to get a good spot with the 70-300mm. Above right: Ghost money at Yimin temple, used to burn and offer spiritual “money” to the deceased. This is very common during Ghost Month but also can be seen year-round. The notes usually have a Chinese king with ridiculously high denominations (perhaps 1,000,000) on the bills.

Tonight, I will be taking shots for part two of this post. There will be a contest for a sacrificial pig which will be put on display tonight at the temple. I am looking forward to seeing this as I missed it last year. Notice in the background of the incense above, the pigs put on display. These pigs were actually made out of noodles, interestingly enough – an obvious connection to tonight’s ceremony.