Takayama Festival? Five Years' Festival

The traditional festival of the Paiwan people, a subgroup of the Alpine tribe in Taiwan, is called "Mareuk" in the Paiwan language, and is also referred to as the Welcoming God Festival. The festival is held every five years on a date in the ninth month of the lunar calendar.

The five-year festival is a ceremony for the Paiwan people to present the gods. Legend has it that the ancestral spirits of the Paiwan people visit their descendants once every five years, and in order to thank their ancestors for blessing them with a happy life, a festival is held every five years. Prior to the festival, tribal men would carve sacred plates and make spears; women would brew wine and make sacred clothes. On the day of the festival, people will put on their national costumes and go to the festival site to participate in the ceremony of presenting the gods, and after the festival, they will collectively drink wine and sing and dance. At the end of the ceremony, each family will send the god card and spear to the tribal leader's home. After the priest makes the sacrifice, he selects the beautiful offerings and throws them outside the village to show that he is sending the god.

During the festival, there are two big events: one is a ball game and the other is a dance. Before the ball game, the young people in the tribe to go into the mountains to cut bamboo, in front of their homes in bamboo rituals to drive away the stench. Then build a platform on the square, ready to stab the ball game with the ball. The earliest balls were made of sleeves, but later they evolved into rattan balls, made of twine and rattan skin, the size of a blue ball, with a rope tied in the center. The ball is held in the square in front of the platform, where all the young men of the tribe participate in full costume. They hold about six meters long, the top of the bamboo pole is very sharp, standing in line in front of the platform, by the head of the elders will throw the ball in the air, the youth of all the bamboo gun to the ball to stab, each stab a ball, onlookers have to cheer warmly, to stab the most times for the winners. Prick ball game is intended to emulate the heroic deeds of our ancestors assassinate the enemy. After the game, there is a dance and a feast. The village headman invites all the youth of the village to participate. During the festival, every year the youths bring thatched knots on themselves to drive away evil spirits.

The five-year festival is again the last event of the coming-of-age ceremony. The rituals are very solemn, led by female shamans and male priests to make offerings in front of the ancestral spirit house, first worshiping the gods of heaven and earth, men and women, the god who created the universe, the god of nature, elves, monsters, and gods of the mountains, water, wind, fire, and valleys, etc. The rituals are solemn and pious. The ceremony is solemn and pious. Then, the start of the grand ball, by the village community men and women dressed in national dress, stepping on the ancient dance, with the rhythm of the song and drums, around a long row of serpentine procession, a circle and circle, symbolizing the Paiwan people's ancestral totem, "Hundred Steps Snake," the reappearance of the momentum, it is very spectacular.