Taipei, Taiwan – Getting ready for the Lunar New 12 months is a busy time for folks like Ms Lin, a 58-year-old who works close to Taipei’s historic Longshan Temple.
Many Taiwanese – and other people of Chinese language descent all through the world – get their hair lower, purchase new garments, clear out the home, put together for a household feast or journey again residence within the run-up to the pageant, which this 12 months falls on Sunday. However many additionally discover time to go to their native temple to hope to gods and ancestors and beat back something untoward lurking within the 12 months forward.
That is the place Al Jazeera discovered Ms Lin one weekday afternoon, queueing to gentle lamps to the Taoist god of cash, and the tai sui, the rotating god of the 12 months, lest he brings her household misfortune.
Ms Lin had accomplished a type with particulars together with info like her age, birthday, and deal with – necessary identifiers in Taoism’s “celestial forms” – at hand to temple workplace employees so the gods can determine every mortal. Nowadays, lamps might be paid for with money or a bank card.
“It’s like [Christians] have Christ that they will confess to. After they have some worries on their thoughts, they’ll search assist from God,” Ms Lin, who most popular to not share her full identify, informed Al Jazeera. “So, we spend a bit of cash and ask the [tai sui] god to learn out our birthday and to maintain us secure. It’s truly very related.”
Longshan Temple is open year-round, however praying to the tai sui – a ritual often known as “an tai sui” – is especially necessary forward of the Lunar New 12 months. In Taoist custom, folks born beneath the zodiac signal of the upcoming 12 months – corresponding to 2023’s 12 months of the Rabbit – face 12 months of potential unhealthy luck and battle as a result of they’ll conflict with the 12 months’s tai sui.
This 12 months, the tai sui is Common Pi Shi – a deity linked to the martial arts who is believed to have lived through the time of the northern Wei dynasty from about 300-500 CE. There are 60 tai sui altogether and so they rotate by every lunar new 12 months.
Ms Lin’s husband was born within the 12 months of the Rabbit, so he might want to take care, however so will folks born beneath the rooster, dragon, rat and horse, in keeping with Chinese language astrology.
The 58-year-old tells Al Jazeera she is performing an an tai sui simply to be secure.
“I anticipate one thing unhealthy might occur,” she stated. “Or if one thing unhealthy occurs, I might really feel prefer it’s as a result of I didn’t an tai sui this 12 months.”
Astrology taken severely
In addition to lighting a lamp, different methods to appease the tai sui embody leaving small choices like joss paper, incense, meals and flowers, in keeping with Marco Lazzarotti, a cultural anthropologist on the Institute of Ethnology of the College of Heidelberg in Germany.
Practitioners might also take note of feng shui, an historical Chinese language artwork that goals to harmonise folks with their atmosphere and requires folks to contemplate the orientation of their residence and the location of objects inside it.
That implies that because the tai sui Common Pi Shi faces in an easterly route, it is very important not block that path, Lazzarotti stated, whereas furnishings also needs to keep away from each orientations.
Clashing with the tai sui, often known as “fan tai sui,” might sound one thing like “Mercury in retrograde” – a time frame the planet seems to be backwards and tied to emotions of frustration and unhealthy luck in Western astrology.
In 2023, Mercury can be in retrograde 3 times for a interval of about 4 weeks, however fan tai sui lasts the whole 12 months.
Extra considerably, nonetheless, could also be that whereas the Western zodiac is seen as one thing of a superstition (and fodder for Instagram or TikTok) largely divorced from its historical Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek roots, Taoism and Chinese language astrology, in contrast, are taken severely, with lengthy traces forming on the Longshan Temple within the days working as much as the brand new 12 months.
Official estimates for what number of Taiwanese practise Taoism range from between 30 to 80 p.c, a determine that’s laborious to pin down as a result of it’s typically blended with Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism and people beliefs that migrated to Taiwan from China. In some circumstances, deities might carry out double obligation as each Buddhist bodhisattva and Daoist god, like Guanyin, the goddess of mercy.
These beliefs, identified broadly as “Chinese language people faith,” have unfold past Taiwan to Southeast Asia and different abroad Chinese language communities, though they had been briefly eradicated in mainland China through the tumult of the Cultural Revolution.
Within the twenty first century, many of those practices have additionally gone on-line and followers can apply to have a lamp lit for the god of their selection at some native temples.
Regardless of the widespread observe of such beliefs, how deep they run often varies from individual to individual, and so they nonetheless retain some recognition with youthful generations. One temple employees member informed Al Jazeera he was processing 200 varieties a day, which was gradual in contrast with a few of the different 11 clerks on obligation.
Additionally noticeably busy was Longshan Temple’s shrine to Yue Lao, the god of affection, which was buzzing with youthful guests praying with incense or asking questions.
For different Taiwanese, like Emily, a 17-year-old additionally queueing to hope for her mom, a “rabbit”, and good examination outcomes, practices like an tai sui are extra custom than perception.
“To my household it’s positively a part of their spiritual beliefs however to me, it’s extra of a cultural observe,” {the teenager}, who didn’t need to share her full identify, informed Al Jazeera.
“Most of my classmates will go an tai sui with their household. If the zodiac indicators occur to conflict, the entire household will go collectively, so I feel this custom will proceed.”