Doors to Diplomacy Participants

Ludong Elementary school (2020 CyberFair Project ID 8505)
Taiwan, Changhua County
Official Status: Final Project: Ready for Judging
Teacher:
Category: 4. Local Specialties

We estimate 6 student(s) from 11 to 12 will work on this entry.

Description of Our Community: Lukang is in the northwest of Changhua County, situated in the central part of Taiwan. Having been colonized by Holland and Spain in the mid-17th century, she used to be a vital port that exported the most deer skin to other countries, after which reason, Lukang was named. Due to some geographical advantages, the short distance between Lukang and Mainland China made the former a highly prosperous port city in the Qing Dynasty. In 1784, Lukang was officially granted the franchise to allow commercial transactions by ship, which later decked her with laurel being one of the top 3 port cities then . Nevertheless, with the sand sedimentation up to 1845 and the lack of rail transportation, Lukang had sunk into oblivion due to hindered commercial activities. A blessing in disguise, Lukang retakes her fame as a fascinating touristic place nowadays owing to such inconvenience of transportation that keeps plentiful old architecture intact, therefore arraying her with an elegantly antique taste.

Project Description: We are 5th and 6th graders from Ludong Elementary School (LDES), dedicating ourselves to advertising Chi-Niang-Ma pavilion through webpage design. A widespread folktale of romance about a cowherd and a weaver goddess’s annual one-time reunion has lingered in people’s minds for a long time. The date they could see each other is said to fall on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which explains the name of Double 7th Day, as known as “Chi-Shi” in Mandarin. On this day, many households in Lukang prepare special food and burn Lukang-exclusive Chi-Niang-Ma pavilions to worship the seven goddesses for blessings. Somehow, handmade paper pavilions have gradually been replaced by printed ones recently. In view of the above, our research explores the origin of the aforesaid worship practices and traditional arts of paper offering, further investigating the reasons that make them less remembered or disappearing. Most importantly, it is hoped that more and more pupils in Lukang could get to know more about Double 7th Day through our designed experiential activities, henceforth passing these traditions and customs on to the next generation.

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