In course of time this matter reached council proportions and at a meeting of the elders it was decided that the evil spirits would need to be placated. Taoist priests were brought to the island and as a result of their deliberations the "Dar Chiew" festival was inaugurated. Year by year, by invitation, the priests arrived on the island to carry out their ritual of placation and cleansing, until now the festival has become an integral factor in the social and religious existence of the island inhabitants.
For several weeks before the festival is due to begin, two craftsinen, skilled in the knowledge of ancient dress and customs, artists in colour, and with ability to construct moulds for papier mache figures, work steadily in the Pak Tak Miu temple, preparing three figures of the gods, each ten feet high. These represent the God of Earth, the God of the Household and the God of Hades. Smaller figures represent the captains of his host and messengers. On the brow of the God of Hades sits a miniature Kwan Yam (Goddess of Mercy), symbolical of the God of Hades under control. These figures are given the place of honour at the festival grounds, objects of prayer and worship.
At the end of the all piers and roads, a lighted lantern placed beneath a sheltering straw hat indicates to the spirits the direction of entrance to the festive grounds where food, wine, oil, playing cards, opium, tobacco and all the things normally enjoyed by the living, are provided. From the entrance point, small shrines with food and wine, where the spirits may eat and drink, are placed every few yards to ensure that they go down the right roads.
The festival lasts for three days. In a bamboo theatre,
specially erected for the occasion, a troop of actors enact the principal events in the Island's history, which lasts each evening until the small hours. Joss sticks, wax candles, money for the next world, crackers and paper effigies are burned for the use of the departed.
At night, the jostling throng under the electric lights, the crashing cymbals and drums, the gaudy glitter of tinsel and paper decorations, the noise of the people, the explosion of the crackers, and the waves breaking on the beach, together with the burning of sweet smelling joss and the pungent odour of burning paper and exploded fire-crackers combine to produce the atmosphere of a pagan festival in full swing.
Donations for this festival come from sources far and wide, but mainly from Swaline and South China from among the Chin Cham people.
Another feature and attraction of this festival is the large amount of buns subscribed for. These buns are piled onto and affixed to high bamboo pylons 25 to 30 feet high and about 6 feet diameter at the base. Many hundreds go on to a pylon. There are generally three very high pylons, and numerous smaller ones. The main pylon at this year's festival carried a weight of 16 cwt. of buns, at a cost of $67.00 per cwt. These bun pylons are exhibited all through the festival and on the very last night at about 3 or 4 a.m., at a given signal from the priest in charge who bangs a gong, there is a mad scramble by everyone present to get as many buns as possible. The theory behind this being that any member of the family who suffers from stomach trouble during the ensuing year need only eat a portion of bun to have the complaint cured.
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