What is the meaning of "Burning the King's Boat"?

"Burning the King's Boat" is a folk custom that originated from the primitive folk beliefs of the Han Chinese who immigrated to Taiwan and, faced with the rampant miasma on the island, attempted to strive for peace with the help of the gods. The burning of the king's boat and the elimination of miasma immediately made people feel at peace and sick, and vaguely gave people the flavor of environmental protection in folklore. The "Burning of the King's Boat" festival is prevalent along the southwest coast of Taiwan, and has always been one of the most famous and important temple activities in Taiwan. Its original meaning is to send the plague out to sea, and although it has evolved into an activity of praying for peace and good fortune, there is still a strong coloring of the god of plague, which makes the "King's Boat Festival" shrouded in mystery to this day. The "King Boat Festival" is still shrouded in a mysterious and serious atmosphere. The festival is held once every three years and lasts for about a week.

Basic introduction:

Legend of the Burning of the King Boat

Since ancient times, South China has been a place of high temperatures and heat, plague, cholera, typhoid fever and malaria. From time to time the plague, in the face of sudden disasters, has always been the wealth of grass and trees of the Chinese people but helpless, thinking that the epidemic plague is the plague God epidemic ghosts. In this situation, the only way to cure the disease was to use ghosts and wizards. But the Plague God is always the Plague God, and no one can be sure when he will start to lose his temper. Legend has it that the nest of the Plague Ghost is an island floating in the sea. The clever Chinese finally came up with a beautiful set of myths, and after offering them hospitality, they made up paper boats to send them (pronounced ta, a third-person pronoun for God, Jesus, or deity) out to sea, hoping they would return to their lair and never come back.

The Ming Dynasty has this record: "Fortunately, the disease was cured, and then make the witch to do magic, with paper paste boat, sent to the water, this boat to the night out, the householders are closed to avoid."

But the residents are very afraid of the king's boat, legend has it that if the king's boat is unfortunate to dock, not only can't escape, but also have to pick it up and build a temple for it or do Jiao Pudu, or else all the villagers will suffer. And the rituals should not be too shabby, otherwise they will be angry. The place where the king's boat floats is of course a bad omen for the local people, but there are always prosperous people because of the rituals. Slowly, the king of the boat on the retreat of the horror of the color, and finally turned into an auspicious artifact.