What will the coming year hold for Taiwan? That’s a question that temples across the island attempt to answer each year around the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.
One temple in Kaohsiung has just released its prediction, using a unique form of divination to do so. Let’s see what this temple says lies ahead.
At Kaohsiung’s Wujia Guandi Temple, a special ceremony has just recently concluded. A medium, following the nudges of the gods, has finished writing out what the heavens say will happen to Taiwan in the coming year.
Around this time of year, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, there are plenty of temples issuing predictions of their own about how Taiwan will fare. But this temple is the earliest to release its predictions. And it’s also the only one that looks into Taiwan’s future using this kind of spirit writing ceremony.
The prognosis looks good this time around: medium-good to be exact. The head of the temple council says the first half of the year will be average. But the second half will bring wealth and a good harvest, with prosperity for all walks of life.
The temple says it’s fairly confident in the accuracy of its predictions. The council head cites the prediction from last year, certain lines of which he says foretold things that really came to pass: US warships in the Taiwan Strait and the return of investment from abroad. For believers, at any rate, it seems that fortune will smile on Taiwan in the coming Year of the Rat.