Travel and Cuisine Taiwan

 Nine feet under 三途川

Every July in lunar calendar is a special month of the year to all Taiwanese; it’s a month where you should keep in low profile, stay at home, doing nothing and keep alerting on every signs. Why? Because this is the very month that the gate of hell will open for all spirits to come to earth to have 30 days vacation, and some spirits might want to claim souvenirs when they return.　

The gate opens on July 1 and closes at July 29( July only has 29days in lunar calendar). On July 15, people will prepare a welcome party for all spirits at this harbor city of northern Taiwan.

The welcome party begins in parade, there are 15 families take turns to hold the festival, this year is Wu’s family in charge.

At 12:00AM, people start burning vessels and release it to the sea to guide the spirit to the right direction.

The origin of this parade was when the first settler came to Taiwan, dispute between two clans were intense, so intense it ended up in physical fight and many were killed during this period. Later, some people came up with this idea to compete in parade to resolve disputes, as time goes by; it becomes what it looks today. 

As far as I know, this vacation privilege only exists in East; western spirits can only remain in inferno for eternity. However, local residents do offer western food like red wine, sausage, etc to foreign spirits who perished on this island on this day, despite the superstition, maybe immigrant is a also possible thing in other world.

Interested? You can contact Immigrant office here in Taiwan for a different “later life”

お盆

陰暦の7月は台湾人にとって特別な月です、この月になると、色色の制限があります、特に、水遊びは行けません,なぜなら、地獄の扉はこの月に開きます、それに見代わりになり易い。

七月十五日はお盆みたいの日です。基隆でこの日になるとあの世の霊に歓迎パレードがあります。

盛り上がりは午後12時00分から船を放火して海に流します。

この風習の起源は、初の移民が台湾に来たとき、族と族の間で喧嘩が多く、人は死んでしまった事もあった。論争を解決するために、戦う代わってパレードをする。時間が経って、今の様子になります。

因みに、ある日本の伝説、あの世に行く時、三途川に渡さないといけないという伝説がありそうです、その川を渡すの為に船を乗るしかないみたいです、しかも有料です。台湾で三途川みたいな伝説もあります、ひとつ違うのは橋が架かっています、しかも、無料です。もし、台湾人に成りたいなら、台湾の移民署を連絡してください。