Partie du Champagne.,.+*

On mother's day, it was a reunion of my grandmothers (dad's mom and mom's mom) after 20 years. Thanks to the High Speed Rail, which makes the distace between the north and the south seems much shorter. We went to the Dongshi Fisherman's wharf again, but this time with the grandmoms and my parents. It was really windy and the color of the water definitely much greener than last time (more like blue/purple). The place had a bit more....

people this time we went.




It was so windy and dusty when we were driving on our way to the wharf that we felt our SUV could be swept by the wind into a ditch or some fish farm pool. When we were walking by the water, it was so windy that all we could hear was wind blowing right by our ears. The place in the photo is actually a sheltered bay with a small water way that leads to the open ocean. But as you can see, the wave doesn't look too calm in this inlet.



The Dongshi wharf area is well known for the oyster farms. There are hundreds of baskets full of these oyster shells everywhere in this small town. Once they "harvested" the oysters inside the shell (as oysters are often sold shell-less in traditional markets), the shells are then recollected and threaded together with strings to be thrown back into the ocean for oyster larvae to attach themselves to a shell and grow.



Religious festival is a major part in the Taiwanese culture, especially in the south.  Most fishermen and sailors worship  "Mazu" (a goddess/guardian of people whose lives depend on the ocean). 



The costumes worn by religious ritual performers to represet the vaious important gods or guardians related to particular myths or legends.



Praying for prosperity 


Eastern pilgrimage - Religious groups from all over Taiwan will go on pilgrimages to the important religious centres (related to particular legends, miracles, etc.) with a statue of the god/goddess from their local shrine or temple. It is not onlyan act of paying respect to their god/goddess, it is also believed by some to enhance the spiritual power of the statue which, supposedly, resides the spirit of the god/goddess.