Temples across Penghu County have crafted giant turtles made of rice in preparation for the traditional “Ciguei” (乞龜) ceremony held on the islands during the Lantern Festival, which falls on Feb. 12 this year.
Ciguei, meaning “praying for turtle(s),” is a ceremony held to pray for luck, prosperity and safety.
More than two dozen turtles made of rice made by Sun Yi-chung’s (孫一中) team since the Lunar New Year holiday began can be seen in more than 20 temples across the county, with the smallest weighing 60kg and the largest 28,200kg.
Photo: CNA
The largest turtle, in Husi Township’s (湖西) Longmen Guanyin Temple (龍門觀音宮), also carries a small turtle on its back and is trailed by three even smaller ones, symbolizing generational inheritance, temple director-general Yang Chao-wu (楊昭武) said.
The project used up more than 11,100 bags of rice and took Sun’s team about a day to finish.
Yang said the temple’s turtle has grown nearly 30-fold in size since it started 14 years ago weighing 960kg.
The growth in scale is partly due to the Ciguei ceremony tradition.
Believers granted prizes — which can be turtle-shaped pastries, bags of rice and other gifts — have to give back to the temple more than they receive on the eve of the Lantern Festival the following year.
More than 200 temples in Penghu are to host Ciguei and other events during the festival, which is considered even more important than Lunar New Year’s Day on the outlying islands.
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