Yunlin County Folklore and Folk Customs: Dashan Flower Drums, Poo Poo Opera, Beigang Cattle Market, Beigang Shangyuan Lantern Festival - Tianhou Christmas Circle. In the vast countryside of Yunlin County, there are many folkloric art formations, among which the flower drums of Dashan Village in Baozhong Township are renowned.
Flower Drum Formation, also known as "Big Drum Flower", "Drum Flower Formation", "Big Drum Lane", or "Drum Turning Formation", is said to have begun in the Ming Dynasty.
Flower Drum Formation, also known as "Big Drum Flower", "Drum Flower Formation", "Big Drum Lane" or "Flip Drum Formation", is said to have begun in the Ming and Zheng Dynasties, after the Zheng army retreated to Taiwan, the Tuen Mun system was implemented, and the soldiers practiced their martial arts skills during the agricultural breaks, while the people jumped around and shouted and beat the drums to help cheer up the soldiers; after the Ching Dynasty, it was changed to a form of flower drums and passed down to the people, and it was prevalent in the villages of the Chia Nan plains and the area around Kao Ping.
Basically, a flower-drum formation requires one head flag, one drummer, two umbrellas, and two drummers and gong players, and the number of people can be increased to make the formation even larger. In the head of the flag under the guidance of the drum as the core, the members of the open step and bend the knees, gongs around the drum side knocking side twisting, umbrellas are rotating shuttle crosstalk, the whole group of people to two beats of the rhythm and the pace of the seven-step changes in formation, the first to worship the flag, playing the circle, and then danced jumping out of four doors, the air through the Shihua, centipede formation, through the gongs, open flowers, the Dragon Gate Formation, the Bagua Formation, the Golden Jade Full of Hall and other formations. The Beigang Cattle Market, located to the right of the Beigang Bridge, was the largest cattle market in Taiwan in the past. The market opens early in the morning on the 3rd, 6th and 9th of each month and disperses only at noon. During its heyday in the 1970s, the volume of cattle traded was once as high as more than 1,000 heads.
The Beigang cattle market has a history of three hundred years. In the early agricultural society, cattle were relied on for farming, carrying goods, and transportation, and markets began to exist in different parts of the country for buying and selling. Beigang is located in the agricultural distribution center and near the harbor, the cattle market is also the largest. Beigang Chautian Temple is the head temple of Taiwan's more than 300 A-Ma temples, incense, every year from the Spring Festival to the end of the Lunar New Year 3 is the incense season, due to the intervening period across the Lantern Festival on the Yuan Lantern Festival and A-Ma's birth anniversary of the two major events, attracting millions of believers from all over the country flocked to the North Harbor to visit the parade around the border, the art of the formation of the class, the fireworks and firecrackers, the incense, such as a tidal wave of visitors.
Among the annual festivities at Chaotian Palace, the Lantern Festival and the A-Ma's Birthday Parade are the biggest. The lantern festival at Chaotian Palace has been a tradition for more than 300 years. In the old days, every household would hang lanterns on the night of the Lantern Festival, making the streets as bright as day. The festival is now held centrally at the Chaotian Palace Cultural Building and lasts for a month, with many large, intricately crafted lanterns on display each year and spectacular rows of peace lanterns hung around the temple.
The circumambulation of Tianhou's birthday has a long history. In the Qing Dynasty, the A-Ma of Chaotian Palace returned to the temple every year to visit her ancestors and offer incense before her birthday, and in the early days, she would cross the sea directly from Bun Harbor to Meizhou, and then land at Anping Harbor on her return trip. Since March 19th is said to be the day when Shubi's A-Ma arrived in Bunhuang, it is of great significance, so he chose this day to go back to Bunhuang, and circled around to seek peace and pray for blessings.
The A-Ma of Beigang went on a two-day parade on March 19 and 20, with volunteers forming a "sedan chair association" to carry the sedan chair in a procession, followed by various dingtou and yigou, and winding through the streets and alleys of downtown Beigang for several kilometers. On the parade route of the family will prepare a sumptuous livestock set incense worship, when the sedan chair comes, they will burn firecrackers to welcome, the more the louder the firecrackers, it means that the more prosperous fortune, will be very profitable. At this time the palanquin must stop to accept the welcome, the earth-shattering firecrackers in the palanquin under the feet of the class thunderbolt burst, caught in the sea of cannon in the palanquin class had to jump on the ground, "stepping on the cannon" to reduce the power of the firecracker explosion. In the procession around the border, the most eye-catching is the brilliant and eye-catching art pavilion. As early as during the Tang and Song dynasties, the art pavilion performance was already popular in folk temple fairs, with children dressed as characters from loyalty and righteousness legends standing on the scenery platform of the courtyard and pavilion for people to enjoy, and later on, in order to match with the procession, a number of people carried the scenery platform in a parade performance. With the progress of the times, it was changed to be placed on an oxcart to save manpower. To modern times, simply move up to more than 10 meters long truck, and with high-tech fantasy lighting and dry ice.