Temples throughout Taiwan are known to rake in a large amount of donations during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Here at Nanyao Temple in Changhua, volunteers have been recruited to help count the piles of cash collected from worshipers during the Lunar New Year. Between the first and fifth days of the year of the snake, they have collected a total of about NT$1.7 million (US$52,000).
This year, donations to Yuanching Temple, also located in Changhua, nearly tripled to a total of about NT$3.8 million (US$116,000).
Since it's customary to pay a visit to major temples during the holiday and make a donation as you pray, temples rake in so much money that they have to apply for a police escort to safely deposit the amount. For some temples, such as Nantou’s Zhushan Zinan Temple, more than a million in donations is an everyday occurrence during the first ten days of the new year.
Temple officials said they see about 100,000 visitors every day during the holiday and receive NT$60 million to NT$70 million (US$1.8 million to US$ 2.1 million) in loan repayments and large donations, on top of NT$26 million (US$794,000) in regular donations. While it’s difficult to imagine anyone daring to steal from the gods themselves, the security detail will surely serve to dissuade thieves.
Hanna Bilinski for Rti News