Goddess of the Sea pilgrimage launched

This article was written by Rita Fang and published by the Taiwan Journal on September 23, 2005. It features the annual eight-day Matsu pilgrimage. This year, the statuette of the goddess Matsu was carried on a palanquin over a 300-kilometer route from Taichung County to Chianghua and Yunlin Counties, to Chiayi County, then all the way back again. The purpose of this pilgrimage is to celebrate Matsu's birthday and to pray for and spread her blessings across the island.

According to legends, Matsu was born to a family in a fishing village on Meizhou Island off the southeast coast of Mainland China's Fujian province, on the 23rd day of the third lunar month, in about 960 AD. Her surname was Lin, while her given name was Mo-niang, or "Quiet Maiden". As a baby, Mo-niang never cried. However, her extraordinary spiritual aura was recognized by a Taoist shaman when she was 13, and she was given magical techniques to help healing the sick and the poor. When she was 16, she was granted certain power to exorcise evil and dispel disaster. When she was 18, she used her magical power to calm the furious ocean waves threatening to swallow her father and other fishermen at sea. Finally, at the age of 28, Mo-niang flew up to heaven on a cloud.

Since then, there have been innumerable reports by fishermen and sailors claiming to have caught a glimpse of Matsu in stormy skies and skimming over the ocean. Matsu temples and shrines have been established all along the coastal areas of southern China and even Southeast Asia. It is estimated that more than 200 temples and shrines in Taiwan are devoted exclusively to Matsu, with several hundred more worshipping her as an important deity.