A box of noodle weighting 100 kg is offered before the statue Tin Hou in Guangzhou. This picture is found at www.singpao.com
. Who is Tin Hou? Tin Hou aka Ma Zu, whose name was Lin Mo, was alleged to be born in 903AD during the Sung Dynasty. Her father was a king in Fujian. She was well-educated and could foretell weather and natural disasters. Applying her knowledge and skills, Lin Mo committed to salvage of her folk fishermen. Her extraordinary performance made her a local religious leader in her early days. She died at the age of 29. Since then, her spirit was reported to have led navy vessels of all kinds to reach their destination in good shape. Her achievement was recognized by the emperors and she was given various sacred titles throughout Sung to Ching Dynasty. Tin Hou was worshipped as the Goddess of Sea. In fact, her domain was reckoned spreading across the horizon.
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. The 23rd of March of the Chinese lunar calendar is the birthday of Tin Hou, which has been celebrating for over eleven hundred years along the coast of south-east China. Cities and towns in Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong are hot spots where the event is celebrated. The day is scheduled at the end of Spring when the rain season approaches. It is time for the coastal inhibitants to start working hard on field and sea. They should also be on the alert for the attack of typhoon.
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. Nowadays, the celebration in Taiwan is of the biggest scale which lasts for more than a week. A carnival procession will travel around Taiwan. The demonstrators in the parade perform various acrobatic presentations, denoting the versatile abilities of their goddess. This marathonic event involves thousands of people sweating for days. The goddess in Taiwan keeps updating herself to fill in the hearts of youngsters. Her images can be found on mobile phones and video games. Countless sets of accessories bearing the theme of Tin Hou can be collected on stalls and shops. The worship of Tin Hou constitutes a significant sector of the local consumption.
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. In Fu Jian, the homeland of Tin Hou, the festival is celebrated in the name of the country. Toasts from all over China and Taiwan crowd to the birthplace of Tin Hou making pilgrimage to their goddess. Other big cities, like Guang Zhou, also celebrate the festival, but the events are held by the local travel and tourist department. Thousands of believers fill up town squares giving prays to Tin Hou. This year, a box of noodle weighting 100 kg is offered to Tin Hou in Guang Zhou. The committees of different Tin Hou Temple race to make a breakthrough record in the sacrificial ceremony of the goddess.
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. In Hong Kong, celebrations are held by local districts since more than 40 Tin Hou Temples are found in Hong Kong. The most impressive ceremonies can be found in Yuen Long and Tai Po. In Yuen Long, the statue of Tin Hou leads a parade which consists of lion dance , dragon dance and various legendary figures. The procession lasts for 10 hours. The parade in Tai Po lines up on water. The statue that leads the parade reaches out to the sea to console the deaths at sea. Although the size of Hong Kong is small and transportation is highly developed, the young generation tends to leave their parents to have their private lives. Tin Hou festival is one of family days around a year. That day, the young will go home to see their parents and attend the sacrificial ceremony of the local district.
Click the picture below to see the video clip of a sea parade in Tai Po Hong Kong
. Whenever people living in the south-eastern coastal China look out at sea, they will naturally pray Tin Hou to safeguard them from all sorts of catastrophe. They are sure she will accommodate their wishes because this is her destiny and the feud under her guardianship.
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. Since Ming Dynasty, relying on sophiscated navigation technology of contemporary Chinese, many Han descendants along south-eastern coastal China left their motherland for good. They brought their practice of worshipping Tin Hou all over the Southeast Asia, from Japan to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. These seafarers popularized their goddess of Han population to be an Asian Pacific goddess, then a global goddess of humankind.
The Tin Hou Temple in Yokohama Japan
