Abstract

In this paper, the religious folk beliefs event in Taiwan - Mazu eight-day pilgrimage on foot as the main object of study, research Matsu pilgrimage ritual activities and games, so as to explore Taiwan's temple festivals of the religious dimension of leisure. First, the claim by the early years after our ancestors had Tachia the "Meizhou ancestral pilgrimage", and the 1987 long before the line of the "North Port ancestral pilgrimage", and so far since 1988, increasingly grand scale "around Newport environment pilgrimage "in three stages, during which the festival was the core of the religious ceremony, showing changes in meaning and different interpretations of the psychological mechanisms; and then explore in the four coastal counties and cities across central Taiwan, three hundred and thirty kilometers of the trek on foot during the pilgrimage in the majority of pilgrims from around the world through the visitors with all kinds of folk art array of input, its spontaneous clustering and enthusiastic participation, and to conduct religious worship celebration in the leisure world. The aim of this paper is to investigate the religious meaning of the leisure dimension of temple festival activities in Taiwan, focusing in particular on the festivity and playfulness of the religious event of Da Jia Matsu jinxaing procession in eight days and seven nights. It will, first, examine the different interpretations and psychological mechanism of this religious festival in the three stages of its historical developments: first, the early form of audience to the ancestor temple in Meizhou, China; second, audience to ancestor temple in Beigang before 1987, and the inspection tour of Matsu through Xingang developed since 1988. Further, we will discuss the religious and social phenomena and their meaning related to the leisure dimension of the festival activities in this religious event, in particular those happen to, as well as perceived by, the participants of the event, including religious believers, tourists, artisans, folklore arts teams, etc., coming spontaneously and enthusiastically from the four corners of the Taiwan Island, during their participation in the jinxiang procession