Comprising children’s dramas, exhibitions, lion dances, pantomimes, parades, percussion performances and stilt walking, the event is one of 12 major festivals designated by the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. It also listed by the Ministry of Culture as an intangible cultural heritage in Taiwan.
According to co-organizer Keelung City’s Cultural Affairs Bureau, the festival will conclude with a spectacular closing ceremony. Highlights include performances by Taiwan drumming group U-Theater, as well as a showdown between locally based Master Lu’s Dragon and Lion Dance Troupe and Thailand’s Nan Sin Dragon and Lion Dance Group.
U-Theater, renowned for combining Taoism with art, is one of the best groups of its kind in Taiwan, while Master Lu boasts a 60-year track record and earned top honors in the prestigious Kaohsiung Lion Dance Festival competition two years ago.
Bureau Deputy Commissioner Hsu Mei-jen said the city has worked hard to deliver a world-class festival this year. “The final show will be an extravaganza underscoring the growing appeal of the event and demonstrating why tens of thousands of people join in the celebrations each year.”
Among Taiwan’s cities, Keelung celebrates the largest number of Ghost Festival activities—a trend linked to waves of immigrants from Fujian province in mainland China settling in the northern Taiwan port city during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
The event’s origins can be traced back to the cessation of hostilities between 11 leading families originally from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou cities in Fujian. Electing to memorialize the fallen, the clans channeled their warring energies into taking turns organizing Ghost Festival celebrations.
In 21st century Keelung, the truce still prevails with the Jiang family responsible for the 2015 edition. Ghost Festival usually takes place on 15th day of the seventh lunar month, which fell Aug. 28 this year. (YCH-JSM)
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