I just returned back to the States after 11 years in Taiwan with my daughter. Taiwan is an excellent base for us explore Asia, while living in relative (gun free) safety, while benefiting from a cheap and efficient national health care system. The people are amazing too. I have Taiwanese friendships that are 20 years old and I'm always making new ones! My coworker here in CO is from Taiwan.
Christmas, New Years, birthdays came and went and we are still here. Of course, Christmas isn't a holiday here and it really is just an advertising gimmick to get people shopping, so we have to really cultivate all that cringle cheer, sans family or Colorado snow. Ten years in Taiwan, we are experts at this by now. Every year, my kid's presents seem to reduce, thankfully Grandpa saved the day with a package or two from home. In January, we went to Kyoto for a birthday getaway. It was both exhausting and exhilarating.
On the honor roll again, 2nd place in her class
Zen and Emm
2018's Chinese Lunar New Year (of the dog) was our first in Taiwan. Z wasn't up to going anywhere (although I had my heart set on Bali.) It was the one year anniversary of her cousin, my niece Emma's tragic death. The whole family is still reeling. The wounds are still so fresh. Staying at home for 2 weeks, with our dogs and taking it slow and easy, was what needed to happen.
Z's kumquat painting
I caught up on yard work when the weather was cooperating. There was a week when it was sunny and warm and we made the most of it, picnicking with friends, napping in hammocks. People all over Taiwan come to our part of the woods for holiday. Their giant buses and cars visiting the nearby lake jam up the small country lanes, but they don't go as far as our tea farm. It was a blessing to be able to enjoy the wealth of our little house location with all this time to paint, do yoga or do nothing. I had time to really reflect on where I came from and where I want to go. I made goals and plans and have been pretty successful thus far with little self-disciplines I have integrated into habits. It's very easy to slip into auto-pilot, especially being a single mom.
Z's vegan orange layer cake with a kumquat glaze
My kid baked a lot, and I am trying to lose the 4 kg I gained during winter. (I am thinking of making a cooking book or blog post of all the fabulous desserts she created.) She finds baking relaxing, an avenue for her creativity and a way to use all the local fruits our neighbors bless us with from their orchards.
Our first Chinese New Year's dinner in Taiwan
For the actual Lunar New Year dinner, one of our kind neighbors (the uncle of my landlady and the grandpa of one of Z's classmates) invited us over. They had quite the spread and made sure we were stuffed. They had the traditional foods and the burning coals under the table, explaining all the dishes and customs, including all the prayers and incantations that had to do during the day and after supper. The grandpa joked,"Its so simple for you, you only have one God, we have so many." I wondered if his grandson would be able to keep up these kinds of traditions when he grows up, he was so interested in getting as far away from the dinner table and back to his computer as possible. His other relations had 4th of July grade, visually beautiful fireworks. My dogs, the dogs in the neighborhood were not exactly feeling their enthusiasm.
The Dragon Boat Festival or "Duan Wu" or "Duan Yang" (Duan-Wu meaning Duan means beginning. Wu means Horse month) It can "Upright Sun" or "Double Fifth" in Chinese) is one of the major Chinese festivals officially celebrated in here in Taiwan on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. There are several poetic and depressing stories about the actual origin of the festival, most involving suicide and drowning. (Try explaining that to a class of 4 year olds; I just tell them Chu Yuan fell into the water and didn't know how to swim--so take some swimming lessons!)
There is the philosopher/poet/statesman Qu Yuan (340 BC-278 BC or 343-290 B.C.), which is the most popular story. He tied a massive rock around is neck and jumped in the river after the king was persuaded by his peers not to take his, Qu Yuan's counsel, the king was killed and the neighboring enemy king took over. The common people were so distraught with is suicide they made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them in the water so the fish wouldn't eat Qu Yuan's body or to feed his ghost so as not to torment them. They rowed their dragon boats and threw in their rice dumplings, beating drums to scare away unwanted apparitions, or to scare away the fish from devouring his drowned corpse.
At this time of year it is quite common for the parents of my students to shower me with these green triangular rice dumplings called Zhong-zi 粽子. There are a variety of fillings, of course hard to digest, sticky starchy rice, sometimes egg yolks, peanut, black mushrooms, chestnuts, jujube, pork.... I like them, (Z doesn't), but I couldn't eat them everyday, they stick to the inside of my gut. I put the extra in my freezer for when I don't want to cook too much and just steam it (followed by a nice soup to wash it down).
There is also the other suicide legend of a young girl Tsaou Er's father who drowned in the river. For 17 days she mourned his death and then on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month she threw herself into the river and also drowned.
One more theory holds that the festival originated from the taboo of evil days and the five poisons. At this time of year, people would fall sick either to poison snake bites, scorpions, centipedes or summer related illnesses. Traditionally, the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar is held as an inauspicious one since the forces of "ying" and "yang" is considered to be imbalanced during this period. This is associated with a legend when someone hung the herbs Artemesia (Mugwort) and Acorus (Calamus) on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, and the village was spared some epidemic disease. So people starting hanging these plants around their doors to dispel poison insects, pests and contagious diseases. This evolved into putting the powders of these herbs into handmade satchels called Xiang Bao (香包) to be worn around the neck.
Xiang bao nowadays, Sponge Bob and Angry Bird among the zodiac animals
Some mothers will put a smudge of this yellow medicinal powder on their child's forehead or nose to dispel disease (hand foot mouth?) and probably mosquito's. A mother of one of my students did this to her daughter. In Europe during the Middle Ages Mugwort was also used as a magical plant and herb against insects and disease. It is still used in traditional Chinese medicine in moxibustion, which is when the herb is lit, the heat releasing its medicinal properties at specific locations of the body (which for my constitution have never needed, unlike cupping, blood lettings and acupuncture). When I lived in Seoul, the neighborhood bathhouse I regularly went to had several pools infused with Mugwort.It kind of smells like marijuana when its lit and can be smoked. In Ayurvedic medicine it is used for anxiety or dis-ease. (I can ramble forever about plants so better stop myself here.)
Most likely, like all ancient civilizations, this festival had long existed in many other parts of China as marking the first harvest along with Sun and Snake worship. Dragons were venerated and worshipped by farmers as controlling the rains, so giving offering of rice dumplings would hopefully endear the dragons to rain on their crops. With increased interaction between people of different regions these festivals eventually got merged and became an independent celebration. Both the Sun and Dragons are associated with masculine energy, the yang aspect. Dragons have traditionally been associated with the Imperial family and specifically the Emperor called “Real Dragon and Son of Heaven.” The five claw-dragon was a symbol of the imperial court. Emperors placed dragon symbols on robes to thrones to flags and everything in between. (Perry, 1966, Lord of the Four Quarters; Myths of the Royal Father, Chapter 5).
The day of the Dragon Boat Festival, traditionalists will fill a glass pitcher of water and let it bask in the sunlit window all morning. Then at 12 noon proceed to wash the body with this super charged yang water. The belief is that this sun water will infuse the body with radiant health for the next year. Also at noon, the sun's energy is so strong that it is said an egg can balance on its head. So today Z and I did a little science experiment and we tried it. I was skyping my folks and wasn't paying attention to the time so I was five minutes past. At 12:05 the egg did not balance. Later at the tea shop their TV was showing the news where hundreds of people successfully were balancing eggs. I was surprised (and just a little jealous). The news then cut to a scene of huge plastic water containers basking in the sun being delivered by truck to customers.
The number 5 has a special significance in Chinese cosmology (Perry 1966) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (read any Mantak Chia books for detailed information). There are 5 elements, that correspond to 5 directions/ 5 organs (yin and yang), 5 emotions, 5 seasons and 5 flavors:
Dragons themselves are deeply rooted in Chinese legend. The Chinese creation myth centers around a half snake half human brother and sister who survived a global flood. To regenerate the human race they became husband and wife. The mythical god/hero Fu Xi (伏羲) and his goddess/sister Nu Wa (女媧 ) themselves are the descendants of semi-human creatures with snake bodies. She is the goddess who created men, animals and repaired a rupture in the wall of heaven. He is said to be the inventor of writing, the I-Ching and the Bagua. Over time they evolved into bodies with animal legs, a horse mane, a rat tail, deer hooves, dog claws and fish scales and thus became dragons (Perry 1966). Perhaps their story evolved from the worship of snakes often represented as Naga, half human half cobra found in Tibet and SE Asia. (I have some Naga photos from my Cambodia trip here.)
As for our experience of the Dragon Boat races, we arrived in Tainan in July 2008 so we missed that year's Dragon Boat festival. The 2009 Dragon Boat weekend we checked out the boats in the Anping canal and then made our way to Nantou. Last Dragon Boat Festival we went to Green Island (photo here). This year we parked by the aboriginal cultural center and walked a few paces to the canal. Z bought a black Angry Bird Xiang Bao and we got a pretty decent spot by the water to catch a few races. We didn't stay long, its like a big, crowded night market, but Z enjoyed the races. We caught a few aboriginal dances before the sky poured on us and left home early.
2009 Dragon Boat Festival
2012
Sources:
Mantak Chia (on Taoism and Tai Chi)
(Perry, 1966, Lord of the Four Quarters; Myths of the Royal Father, Chapter 5).
The veil between the dead and living has been temporarily lifted for a month, so locals believe. The 7th lunar month is Ghost Month when the hungry ghosts come to haunt the undead. There are many superstitious rules to follow and I only remember two: don’t swim or hang your clothes outside to dry for fear of being possessed. Did I mention possession is a real, normal phenomena here, like catching the flu. I have one Taiwanese friend who takes her only son to the temple to be routinely exorcised. He comes home with a big red stamp of approval on his forehead.
My friend told me it all started during the Ming dynasty, a royal astrologer to the Emperor told him that the 7th lunar month was very auspicious, so the Emperor being the caring leader wanted to horde all the good luck for himself and had his people told the converse. Superstition and ghost stories grew throughout the years. It can’t all be bad luck, as the Chinese Valentine’s Day is also this lunar month (a very nice little folktale I wrote a poem about "On this night of 7's" ). I’ve also heard stories that Ghost Month originated in India with Buddhism, that during the 7th lunar month, Buddha’s disciples attained enlightenment more during this month than the others and that one follower in particular was told that his mom was unable to pass onto the next world unless he appeased her ghost. Apparently she was starving, her belly was insatiable and her throat too thin. Who knew? Whatever the origins my neighborhood has been full of more people burning ghost money outside their buildings than usual, paying off their ancestors to find peace.
Last weekend during the full moon was the climax. All the temples were active. Every building had a table full of offerings and the ghost money burnt so fiercely, the air was hazy, my eyes stung and my throat was irritated. My apartment building had several tables outside the front door covered with bowls and large trays full of snacks, fruit, ghost money and the neighbors’ apartment number. The temples put on shows for the gods. I’ve seen puppet shows, burlesque teases, Chinese opera all with full blast sound systems (because the ghosts are hard of hearing). Its seriously loud, loud enough where even me (I think I may be slightly deaf no joke) have to stand away from the stage to take pictures.
Do you take me for a cynic? Truly I believe in ghosts, I saw them with my own eyes twice and have had more experience than I can count with spirits (mostly in night terrors, out of body experiences) so have my folks. The first ghost I saw I was a kid and I saw it with two of my brothers. It was late, my folks had company over it was around 10pm we were outside on the driveway, a summer night when a little ghost like Casper, no bigger than 3 feet ran past us, luminous, flying as he ran. As he flew past it left imprints with a face each more terrorizing than the previous. We all screamed and my youngest bro John ran in the house and told my folks- who didn’t take us seriously. The second time I saw a ghost I was 20 years old in Catalonia, a seaside village north of Barcelona. I was an au-pair and my then family was staying at their summer home, the grandfather’s home. The baby had a nightmare and for some reason neither me nor the mom heard him crying (it was our job to be there when he woke as the Dad was too macho for that.) Anyway as I walked in I saw the Dad (not happy to be the one comforting his son on a Sat morning) asking me why I didn’t hear Pedrito crying. Standing behind them was a man, life-sized, tall, dressed, luminous, who commanded me in Spanish to enter “Venga!” I was so shocked I really didn’t even pay attention to the annoyance of Pedrito’s father. After 30 seconds or so the ghost faded. Maybe it was the grandfather? Maybe Pedrito saw the ghost and got scared or he had a nightmare and the ghost came to comfort him?
I have met many travelers throughout the years with their own ghost close encounters and I always thought it would make a great travel book. I collected the most stories in Egypt and Sudan, some local folklore, others first-hand encounters and also some ofmy own personal experiences I shared with a group of volunteers outside Khartoum. I believe in ghosts, spirits, demons, angels. Am I afraid of them? Not after Sudan. I have my recent stories of Z and I and spirits in Taiwan. Ghosts are abundant here, like mosquitos, maybe because people believe in them so much.
means Horse month) It can "Upright Sun" or "Double Fifth" in Chinese) is one of the major Chinese 
