Worship of Mazu
Pious worshippers cross the threshold with great respect, sincerely burning incense, making offerings and kneeling down to ask Mazu for blessings. Past this hall is the newly-built Ascension-to-Heaven Pavilion. From the top of the three-storey, pagoda-like pavilion one can see the entire temple complex. However, the best view of the island and its temples is from the summit of Mount Meifeng.
When pilgrims reach the top of the mountain, however, their first objective is not to enjoy the scenery but to look at the towering statue of Mazu there. This 14-metre-tall granite sculpture blends in beautifully with the white clouds floating past the peak. The statue embodies the qualities of both a goddess and a kind mother figure.
People come to the temple to pay homage all year round, but the busiest day on Meizhou Island is the 23rd day of the third lunar month, Mazu's birthday. Every year, starting on about the 15th day of that month, boats and ships decorated with coloured pennants and laden with pilgrims arrive at Meizhou from all directions. By the 22nd and 23rd, everywhere on the island from the shore to the top of Mount Meifeng is packed with people. Gaily dressed, they sing and dance as they make their pilgrimage.
Among the crowds of people there is usually a group of women whose clothes are particularly eye-catching. They wear tall, sail-shaped hairstyles and half-red, half-blue wide-legged trousers. People call them "Meizhou Women" and their outfits are said to be modelled on the costume Mazu used to wear. As Mazu is the goddess of the sea and protector of boats, her hairstyle is reminiscent of a sail, and the symbol of her identity as the Holy Mother in Heaven is the red outfit she wears when she flies through the sky. Since women in the human world are subordinate to her and therefore must not wear identical clothes, their trousers are only half red.
Among the pilgrims, some come representing their families, some as delegations selected from villages or townships, and others as "Incense sharing Groups" that have been organized by Mazu temples in other places.
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