Now this is a Taiwan classic all over!
There is one thing that is unique to Taiwan. I am not sure if people practice this in mainland China, but certainly not in Singapore or Malaysia. What is it???
We call it Ban Dou, which is in Taiwanese dialect and means a banquet on the street. You see, space in Taiwan is limited. In the past when people have more space, they have banquets and dinners right outside of their house because there’s usually a court yard. In the city, there is no space like that, but people still prefer to hold banquets right outside of their apartments, so what do they do? They block off half the already narrow street and put a big tent over it, lay dining tables and invite their guests over. They will hire catering service who will set up a make shift kitchen on the spot to serve the guests, and woah lah! There you go! So when do people have banquets like this?
Wedding, religious celebrations and funerals. So basically, anything!
Today, we were invited to one. It’s a temple celebration of the temple’s worshiped divine spirit’s birthday. Just like the one I wrote about in 2007, this has a puppet show playing for three days as a gift to the spirit, and the banquet is a part of it. So what do I have to do with this temple or the spirit? Nothing, I am just crashing the party!!!!
Just waiting to get started.
Puppet show stage.
Food ready to be served.
The incredible simple mobile kitchen set up managed by three ladies.
It’s been a looooong time since I last been to a street banquet like this. Actually, this isn’t bad at all because we are not on the road. We are still on the pedestrian side walk, so there is no worry of getting hit by a car. While everyone is waiting and after paying respect to the divine spirit, I headed over to the cooking corner to see what it’s all about. So basically, there is a big steamer to keep food warm and a bunch of already prepared food. What they do is they have a lot of pre-prepared dishes that just need warming and final touches before they can be served. Typically, between these three ladies, they have to serve 10 courses from appetizers to desserts. Actually, there were several courses of desserts, two soups, steam whole fish, chicken, pork dish and a bunch of other tasty classics.
Around the table, well, it’s kan bei time! Toasts were thrown repeatedly from table to table. Friends and family greet each other with alcohol. It’s loud, it’s chaotic, it’s energetic! Soon, it doesn’t matter where your seat is, because you will be traveling between tables with your little plastic cup to toast to whoever you see, and soon, you lose track of where you are. Fun times! So not me.
"Hey, what are you doing? You should be drinking!!!"
Then, story time. The family who’s hosting the banquet owns the temple, therefore worships and supports the divine spirit. So what is this divine spirit? You see, there are tens of thousands of temples in Taipei alone, small temples like this that have a small group of followers. In my opinion, this is not really a religion because there is no set rule or practice. It’s basically an idol that you choose to follow. Taiwanese love to fulfill their insecurity through fortune telling. Asking god for advice is pretty rooted within the Taiwanese culture. Therefore there is no shortage for the demand for temples because people always have doubts and questions about their lives that they want to seek advice on. So they go to these temples, bring some offerings like fruits, meat or flowers and ask the spirit questions. The spirit will give them the advice in various ways, offering either warning or instructions. So that settles the reason why people do it in the first place.
Why do they keep coming back? Does it really work? Apparently so! Well, many believe that when they practice the instructions offered by the divine spirits, they work, so they keep coming back. Do I believe this? I do, because I have experience it. I don’t want to get into the details here, but I start to realize the world that is beyond mine.
When it comes to gods and divine spirits, regardless of religions or cultures, people usually think these idols are holy spirits who are absolutely perfect, so perfect that they are beyond human’s ability to understand fully. Of course, I believe that some of these figures are holy and perfect, but the way I understand about these local divine spirits are a little different. They are as human as we are. They like to be famous, honored and worshiped. They like to have as many followers to show their status. They communicate with other divine spirits and they can be quite fun to hang out with.
The people who own the temples like this usually are people who also hold the position as “Dang Gi”. Which means, folks who have the right combination of body and mind that makes it easy for the divine spirit to attach to him. This is when the spirit takes over the body of the person and use this method to how its powers and communicate with the rest of the people. This is when the person appears to become someone else entirely, but represents the spirit. When the spirit leaves his physical body, he “wakes” up and return to the normal state.
More shots of the mobile kitchen.
Today's menu!
Is the spirit feared? Absolutely, but rather “feared”, I think it’s more like respect. The spirit protects its followers from other bad stuffs, like bad spirits that are trying to get you into trouble, or try to discourage you from bad habits like excessive drinking, as in the case of the person who invited us. Apparently, the spirit told him to drink less. Once, his drinking buddy came over for a drink, and the spirit attached onto the buddy’s body and made him hit his head against the table several times, telling him to stay away from this guy. From then on, no one dares to come to his house for a drink.
I think what’s attractive about the spirit is his humanistic side. The side that human beings can relate to. It is the emotional aspect that makes him believable. He’s after all a humanistic idol, guardian of the good values and virtues that its human followers hold dearly onto. To me, the divine spirit are just the perfect human, all the good traits that make us strong, but tough enough to be our moral gate keeper.
Perhaps they are the so-called “angels” that westerners refer to.
Neighbouring Temple, much bigger and established.
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