And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street

Does anyone remember this Dr. Seuss book? Yeah, I loved it as a kid too. Well, I had one of those moments tonight, only it wasn't Mulberry Street, and it wasn't as warm and fuzzy like Dr. Seuss books.

As I got off the bus, I noticed a ton of fireworks going off just down the road from our apartment. I figured I had nothing better to do, so I ran down to see what was going on. My effort was well rewarded. I don't know why, but there was a huge procession of people following a sedan chair with 3 gods sitting in it. Also in the procession were drummers, a Chinese horn band, lots and lots of little old lady's waving their incense sticks... and them.... Thats right, not one, but five Ji Tong's came walking down the road. Now, I must warn you, if violence or blood make you queasy, STOP READING NOW! Do yourself a favor and go check out someone elses blog.

What is a Ji Tong you ask, well... let me show you:

Ji Tong's are basically Daoist priests who follow these processions around. To prove they are possesed by the spirits of the gods, they beat themselves on the back with whatever sharp object is handy. (Ok, it is probably a lot more spiritual and complicated than that, but that is what the locals tell me.) If you look close, the Ji Tongs are followed by another guy who is carting around the various sharp objects they hit themselves with. I think I see a sword, an axe, a ball with a bunch of nails sticking out of it, and then a thing that looks like it is the mouth of a fish. Imagine a sword fish, but instead of a long narrow pointy mouth, these have a long, flat mouth with sharks teeth sticking out the side. Pretty nasty.

Anyway, sorry for the low quality of photo. All I had handy was my iPhone. And it was dark. And I kept moving around to get a better angle. I took a bunch of video of them actually doing the ritual where they beat themselves and blood goes everywhere, but I can't figure out how to get it off my phone. It was pretty cool.... but also really morbid and gross now that I think about it. Here is another pic (notice the guy with the big Daoist god costume on, I still am not sure what they are for):

And one more just for kicks:

Usually you will see the little old lady's who follow these guys around run up and rub their clothes in the blood for good luck. That didn't happen this time... I'm not sure why.

I also had to run for my life tonight. No, not because the Ji Tong turned on the crowd, but because as I was taking video, a bunch of guys laid thousands of firecrackers behind me. I heard one of the guys yell in Taiwanese at everyone to run away, so I turned around in just enough time to see him bend down and light the firecrackers. It was a little close for comfort. I made it across the street in time for them to go off, but for the next 5 minutes I couldn't hear or see anything. There was soooo much smoke, in fact, I still smell like gun powder and incense. I may need to shower before I go to bed.

Oh, one other cool thing, so after they got done lighting the firecrackers on the sidewalk, they then ran out in the middle of the road to light off more. Instead of unrolling the gargantuan rolls of firecrackers like they normally do, they just threw them all in a huge pile. I'd never seen that before, but I was glad I got to see it tonight. Because all the firecrackers were in one pile, they basically all went off in about 10 seconds, which means I got to see a fireball shoot 40 feet into the air in a teeny little alley. I'm not kidding when I say the fireball topped out at about the 4th floor of all the buildings around. It was amazing, simply amazing.

I wish I could post all the video's because other than the fireball, I got all this and much much more on video. If someone knows how to download video off an iPhone (video that was taken with a free application my Dad downloaded for me) just let me know and I'll see what I can do about putting those videos on here.

I know Nicole will be mad she missed this, but then again, she gets to go snowboarding today... I get to sell elevators.

Ahhh... Mulberry Street.... what will we see next?....