World Festivals
GEOE 1002 - 001
Summer 2010 section
Professor : Joseph Naumann
Student : Howard Tsui
Matsu Festival ( Goddess of sea)
 The Matsu ( Goddess of sea) festival take place in Taiwan, in
the month of March.
 According to the Legend, a girl born in the Song Dynasty
named Lin Mo-niang (means silent girl). One night, her
father and brother were trapped by a major storm while
they were fishing, Lin stood near the edge of the beach
waving her clothes and small lantern to guide her family
back to safety. Ever since then she does the same to other
lost fishermen and guide them back home.
Festival location
Matsu pictures
 The picture on the left
shows people crawling
under the Matsu palanquin
to receive her good luck.
The right one shows the
entire festival and all the
different Matsu palanquins
Songkran Festival
 The SongKran Festival held in Thailand between April
13 – 15
 It’s the celebration of the traditional Thailand new
year. The biggest and funniest part of the celebration
is that everyone has to throw waters at each other till
the person is soaking wet. The wetter the person is
the more good luck they will have in the up coming
year and its also a respect to people.
Songkran Festival location
Songkran pictures
Sanja Festival
(Three Shrine Festival)
 The Sanja festival held in Japan, it happens thought-out
the entire nation in mid-May, which is the 3rd weekend
of May. The festival last for 3 days, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday.
 The festival is held to honor the 3 men who founded
the Senso-ji and the purpose is to bring good luck and
blessings to the local area.
Sanja Festival location
Sanja Festival pictures
Daeboreum
(Great Full Moon)
 The Daeboreum take place in Korea in the 15th day of
the Lunar new year.
 The Daeboreum is established on the ancient farmers
practice to burn dry grass in the rice field to kill
insects. Today adults and children will gather around
the fire or climb mountains to be the first to see full
moon rise. The legend said first person who sees the
full moon will have good luck for the entire year and
their wish will come true.
Daeboreum location
Daeboreum pictures
Moon Festival
(Mid-autumn Festival )
 The Chinese Moon Festival held in August 15th of the
Chinese farmers calendar. Take place in both China
and Taiwan. The purpose of the festival is mainly for
family reunion, every member of the family will
gather, usually in grandparent's house ,eat moon
cake and Chinese style BBQ.
Moon festival stories
 There are two main stories for the Moon festival.
 The Lady who flew to the Moon (Chang Er) – Change Er was the queen of a
man name Hou Yi. One day Hou Yi stole the potion of life from a god, so he can
rule the country forever. But change Er stole the potion from him and drink it to
save the people from her husband’s cruel ruling of the country. However, after
Change Er drank the potion, she then have the ability to fly to the moon and live
there forever.
 The man on the Moon (Wu Kang) – Wu Kang was a man who get tired of things
really fast and always changes his interest. One day he decided that he wants to
become an immortal. So, he went and found a master immortal to teach him
how. But no matter what the master teach Wu Kang, he never have the patient
to learn. Wu Kang asks if there is a faster way to become immortal, the master
brought him to a tree on the moon and told him all he have to do is to cut down
the tree to become immortal. But the tree has a magical power that it grows
back when Wu Kang try to cut it. Therefore, Wu Kang is now cutting the tree
day and night on the moon.
Moon Festival location
Moon festival picture