Attending the Nine Emperors Festival at the Temple of the Gay Taoist God in Taiwan. Updated.
They do this in the 9th lunar month.
Subscriptions are free
I was given the card on the right and a box and bag to carry it in. Was especially blessed.
Introduction
Currently in the United States there are now functioning Gay temples where a group of people have a space and have a collection of individuals working together.
Observing the activities of the only known religious group that is non-Abrahamic (Not Christian, Jewish or Muslim) might be instructive. It isn’t that we would do exactly what they are doing, or have the same or similar beliefs and resulting activities, but how a temple is able to sustain itself and maintain itself as an organization.
One thing is to have observances of days and events. So I would like to describe this even in which I participated on 10/15/2023 Taipei calendar.
This is their collection of links.
Poster on the way into the Temple.
The temple is on the eight floor. I don’t know what the text says.
Nine Emperors Festival
The Temple gave me this resource to read about the Nine Emperors Festival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Emperor_Gods_Festival
I also found this source online from a credible academic resource.
https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=4f7db20e-7313-4be0-a67e-3aaf275efb8f
It originates from the people in the Chinese province of Fujian and since these peoples have historically migrated to Taiwan and through out Southeast Asia the Nine Emperors Festival is practices in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
From Wikipedia:
The Nine Emperor Gods Jiǔ Huáng Xīng Jūn / Jiǔ Huáng Da Di (九皇星君/九皇大帝) are the nine sons manifested by Father Emperor Zhou Yu Dou Fu Yuan Jun (斗父周御國王天尊) and Mother of the Big Dipper Dou Mu Yuan Jun (斗母元君) who holds the Registrar of Life and Death. Today, most Nine Emperor God temples do not acknowledge the existence of Dou Fu Yuan Jun. However, Dou Fu Yuan Jun is invoked alongside Dou Mu Yuan Jun in Great Dipper Honouring known as Li Dou (禮斗) ceremonies.
According to Rev. Long Hua, the 35th generation Taoist priest from Singapore, honouring the Northern Dipper stars prolongs one's life, eliminate calamities, and absolves sins and past debts of oneself and his family.[12] The term Ye (爺) as in Jiu Huang Ye (九皇爺) loosely translates as "Grandfather", a title worshipers commonly use to bring a more intimate relationship between themselves and the Nine Emperors. The Nine Emperor Gods should not be mixed up with the Wang Ye or Princes of the Ming loyalists. Popular folk culture has it that the Nine Emperor Gods are actually loyalists of the Ming dynasty who fought against Qing dynasty. According to Long Hua, this information is inaccurate and considered derogatory to the actual teachings of Taoism as the Nine Emperor Gods are actually high-ranking Star Lords who preside over the movement of planets and coordinate mortal Life and Death issues.[13] The Nine Emperors is formed by the seven stars of the Big Dipper of the North Ursa Major (visible) and two assistant stars (invisible to most people). The Nine Emperor Stars are:
Tan Lang Tai Xing Jun (貪狼太星君)1st Star (Visible) Bayer: α UMa
Ju Men Yuan Xing Jun (巨門元星君) 2nd Star (Visible) Bayer: β UMa
Lu Cun Zhen Xing Jun (祿存貞星君) 3rd Star (Visible) Bayer: γ UMa
Wen Qu Niu Xing Jun (文曲紐星君) 4th Star (Visible) Bayer: δ UMa
Lian Zhen Gang Xing Jun (玉廉貞綱星君) 5th Star (Visible) Bayer: ε UMa
Wu Qu Ji Xing Jun (武曲紀星君) 6th Star (Visible) Bayer: ζ UMa
Po Jun Guan Xing Jun (破軍關星君) 7th Star (Visible) Bayer: η UMa
Zuo Fu Da Dao Xing Jun (左輔大道星君) 8th Star (Invisible)
You Bi Da Dao Xing Jun (右弼大道星君) 9th Star (Invisible)
Eastern religion isn’t exclusionary. You can be involved in more than one religion and religions often borrow from each other. The mother Goddess appears to have some origin in Hindu religion. Fujian, a seafaring coastal province would be in contact with Indian civilization.
The ceremony itself
I participated in this service as a good will gesture and you can briefly see me participating at a little after 1:02:40. I am the tall person with graying hair.
It is an hour and half long. It is standing, kneeling, bowing from the waist, and bowing with head near the floor. It was strenuous for myself.
https://www.facebook.com/WeiMingShrine/videos/1378239679727443
You don’t just kneel in a pew or sit and get talked at. You participate.
This was the layout of the altar set up. There is first a star pattern, then offerings, then the nine gods, and then the mother goddess of them all.
The following represents a star pattern.
Nine emperors represented by the wooden plaques.
The mother of the Nine Emperors was unveiled and in front of the altar.
My spot was the pad indicated by the red arrow. The person by the pad was to the left of me and I copied his every move.
There were special individual offerings.
This was mine. My name is written in ancient Chinese script on the blue paper. The read objects have the symbol of the moon on the left and the sun on the right. It was a little less than NT3 6,000 to have this. Which is about $170 USD.
Did prayer for the safety of NO HATE IN TEXAS after the ceremony.
After that is when they gave me the card with it being blessed in a ceremony involving smoke before the mother Goddess.
Afterwards I got to talk to a couple persons who spoke English.
I did find out that they have stopped participating in the big Pride event, for some reason I didn’t understand and that they didn’t go to the bars for some reason.
Maybe it has something to do with Taoism, but I think that being in the Pride event would be critical to letting people know you exist and rejecting the Gay bars probably limits membership. However, it is their religion, but I don’t think it is something for us.
Some thoughts
One reason I wanted to do posts on this temple is to show that a temple is possible. To see one in operation helps people imagine that they might have their own temple.
When I get back to Dallas I hope to use this temple as an example. The scattered, fragmented and individual practice of Gays could become more a social group with some type of organization.
I can feel the pain. Ouch those kneeling...