Baosheng Cultural Festival

Went to check out this event at the Baoan Temple in Taipei, 19th April.

Its one of the highlights of the celebrations of the the birth of the Baosheng Emperor, the main deity worshipped at this Taoist Temple. Other days included firewalking, opera competitions (!) and street theater seminars.

Saturdays events included performances from some of Taiwans most highly regarded street performance troupes, including Songjiang Formation, Flower Drum Formation and the excellently titled Twelve Grannies Formation. Needless to say I had no clue which of these crews did what performances as there was a constant procession of groups waiting for their turn in front of the main shrine. What I did see was some quality pole-top lion dancing, giant carnivalesque puppets, a 20m long dragon, LOTS of firecrackers (see pictures).

The culmination of the day was the fire-lion, which was about the most up-close firework display Ive ever experienced (as a punter). An interesting contrast to health and safety standards in the UK, it centered around a paper lion stuffed annd surrounded by tiers of fireworks. Audience members in the know brought hats and umbrellas to protect their heads from debris and downward-pointed fountains. After the first few seconds, I could see very little except smoke and glimpses of 'technicians' scurrying about with firebrands lighting the next giant cake. The aftermath could have been a bomb-site if not for the children still excitely running around in the ash and debris. I may still be a little deaf...

An Uninvited Guest

And such bad manners too, eating the residents...

Found this beastie the other evening, busy devouring one of our biggest resident hunting spiders. The spider was about 5 inches across, so it must have been quite a tussle. Its a Taiwanese House Centipede, similar to the species found commonly across the US, but considerably bigger. I hear that they eat cockroaches too, though, so its not all bad..