Rice bag turtles set to bless Penghu for Lantern Festival

Taipei, Jan. 27 (CNA) Temples across Penghu County have crafted "rice bag turtles" in preparation for the traditional "Ciguei" (乞龜) ceremony held on the islands for Lantern Festival, which falls on Feb. 12 this year.

Ciguei, meaning "praying for turtle," is a ceremony to pray for luck, prosperity and safety for Penghu believers during the Lantern Festival festivities.

Over two dozen rice bag turtles made by Sun Yi-chung's (孫一中) team since the Lunar New Year holiday began can be seen in more than 20 temples across the county, with the smallest weighing 60 kg and the largest 28,200 kg.

The largest turtle, located in Huxi Township's Longmen Guanyin Temple, also carries a small turtle on its back and is trailed by three even smaller ones, symbolizing generational inheritance, according to temple director-general Yang Chao-wu (楊昭武).

The project used up more than 11,100 bags of rice and took Sun's team about a day to finish.

Yang said the temple's turtle has grown nearly 30-fold in size since it started 14 years ago weighing 960kg.

The growth in scale is partly due to the Ciguei ceremony tradition.

Believers granted prizes -- which can be turtle-shaped pastries, bags of rice and other gifts -- have to give back to the temple more than they receive on the eve of Lantern Festival the following year.

More than 200 temples in Penghu will host Ciguei and other events during the festival, which is considered even more important than New Year's Day on the outlying islands.