World Festivals GEOE Summer 2010 section Professor : Joseph Naumann Student : Howard Tsui

 The Matsu ( Goddess of sea) festival take place in Taiwan, in the month of March.  According to the Legend, a girl born in the Song Dynasty named Lin Mo-niang (means silent girl). One night, her father and brother were trapped by a major storm while they were fishing, Lin stood near the edge of the beach waving her clothes and small lantern to guide her family back to safety. Ever since then she does the same to other lost fishermen and guide them back home. Matsu Festival ( Goddess of sea)

Festival location

 The picture on the left shows people crawling under the Matsu palanquin to receive her good luck. Matsu pictures The right one shows the entire festival and all the different Matsu palanquins

 The SongKran Festival held in Thailand between April 13 – 15  It’s the celebration of the traditional Thailand new year. The biggest and funniest part of the celebration is that everyone has to throw waters at each other till the person is soaking wet. The wetter the person is the more good luck they will have in the up coming year and its also a respect to people. Songkran Festival

Songkran Festival location

Songkran pictures

 The Sanja festival held in Japan, it happens thought-out the entire nation in mid-May, which is the 3 rd weekend of May. The festival last for 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The festival is held to honor the 3 men who founded the Senso-ji and the purpose is to bring good luck and blessings to the local area. Sanja Festival (Three Shrine Festival)

Sanja Festival location

Sanja Festival pictures

 The Daeboreum take place in Korea in the 15 th day of the Lunar new year.  The Daeboreum is established on the ancient farmers practice to burn dry grass in the rice field to kill insects. Today adults and children will gather around the fire or climb mountains to be the first to see full moon rise. The legend said first person who sees the full moon will have good luck for the entire year and their wish will come true. Daeboreum (Great Full Moon)

Daeboreum location

Daeboreum pictures

 The Chinese Moon Festival held in August 15 th of the Chinese farmers calendar. Take place in both China and Taiwan. The purpose of the festival is mainly for family reunion, every member of the family will gather, usually in grandparent's house,eat moon cake and Chinese style BBQ. Moon Festival (Mid-autumn Festival )

 There are two main stories for the Moon festival.  The Lady who flew to the Moon (Chang Er) – Change Er was the queen of a man name Hou Yi. One day Hou Yi stole the potion of life from a god, so he can rule the country forever. But change Er stole the potion from him and drink it to save the people from her husband’s cruel ruling of the country. However, after Change Er drank the potion, she then have the ability to fly to the moon and live there forever.  The man on the Moon (Wu Kang) – Wu Kang was a man who get tired of things really fast and always changes his interest. One day he decided that he wants to become an immortal. So, he went and found a master immortal to teach him how. But no matter what the master teach Wu Kang, he never have the patient to learn. Wu Kang asks if there is a faster way to become immortal, the master brought him to a tree on the moon and told him all he have to do is to cut down the tree to become immortal. But the tree has a magical power that it grows back when Wu Kang try to cut it. Therefore, Wu Kang is now cutting the tree day and night on the moon. Moon festival stories

Moon Festival location

Moon festival picture