Mazu Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
The Macao Mazu belief and customs are a folk-belief practice handed down by the people of Macao for more than 500 years, rooted in reverence for Mazu's great virtue and great love. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, most officials who traveled to Macao would go to the Mazu temple to burn incense and pray for blessings.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Through such forms as visiting the temple to burn incense, offering golden pigs in sacrifice, donating charitable funds, decorating with flower plaques, and staging operas to celebrate the birthday, the faithful pray for Mazu's protection for favorable weather and peace on water and land. The A-Ma Temple is one of Macao's oldest temples; originally called the "Mazu Pavilion," it also has such alternative names as the "Zhengjue Chanlin," the "Haijue Temple," the "Mazu Temple," and the "Queen of Heaven Temple." It sits at the foot of A-Ma Hill at the southern tip of the Macao Peninsula. According to historical research, its history can be traced back at least more than 400 years. The A-Ma Temple's standing has received official recognition: at the top of the stone wall behind the shrine of the "First on the Divine Mountain" hall, there is a stone inscription from the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty reading "Built by Li Feng, the palace eunuch and imperial envoy supervising the pearl-pool and maritime-trade taxes of Guangdong and concurrently in charge of the salt administration." Belief in Mazu has a long history in Macao and is deeply rooted in the people's hearts. The people of Macao have believed for generations that Mazu can protect safety on water and land, bring prosperity in business, and watch over their descendants; they respectfully call Mazu "A-Ma," and the conviction that "when people act, A-Ma is watching" is deeply rooted in their hearts. On ordinary days the A-Ma Temple is never without the smoke of incense; at Lunar New Year's Eve each year and on the 23rd day of the third lunar month, the birthday of the Queen of Heaven, the incense burns even more thickly. Pilgrims converge from all directions, devoutly burning incense, worshipping, and kowtowing in prayer. A rich variety of activities is also held on the site, with purple smoke hanging in the air above the A-Ma Temple and an atmosphere of peace and harmony all around. In the days around the 23rd day of the third lunar month, the people of Macao perform shengong operas on the open ground in front of the A-Ma Temple, expressing their reverence for Mazu. After more than a century, the annual A-Ma birthday shengong opera has taken on a fixed ritual form. When the donation ledger is opened, the funds raised are counted in public; the process is open and transparent, preventing those who hold the ledger from secretly taking a cut. The various neighborhood communities take turns tossing the sacred cups (shengbei); one face up and one face down counts as a win, and the winning community respectfully welcomes the statue of the Queen of Heaven into its homes to be worshipped. The idea that Mazu protects all people, high or low, rich or poor, is widely accepted by the people of Macao. The shengong banquet sets out tables on the ground in front of the A-Ma Temple, creating an atmosphere in which gods and people rejoice together. The stage and theater shed for the shengong opera are built on the open ground in front of the A-Ma Temple, with the stage facing directly toward the statue of Mazu, achieving a perfect fusion of entertaining the gods and entertaining the people.
The incense peaks of New Year and the birthday
Incense never ceases at the temple, but the eve of the lunar year and the goddess's birthday bring pilgrims from every quarter.
Opening the subscription book in public
Subscriptions are counted in public at the opening, so no one keeps the book and skims off the takings.
Casting the divination blocks
Each neighbourhood in turn casts the blocks; an upright pair wins, and that household carries the goddess home for the year.
The divination play of the birthday
For several days around the birthday the faithful stage merit plays in the square before the temple, the stage facing the goddess.
The blessed banquet
The blessed banquet sets tables on the temple ground, ordering places and dishes as offerings of respect, with play continuing until night.
The first hall on the spirit hill
Set on the hill of A-Ma at the south tip of the peninsula, the temple keeps a Ming-dynasty inscription behind its first shrine.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Macao, Mazu is called A-Ma, and the A-Ma Temple is also known to locals as the Mazu Pavilion, the Zhengjue Chanlin, the Haijue Temple, or the Queen of Heaven Temple; behind a single temple's many names lie the various ways the same body of believers refers to it, and the changing back and forth of the names is the mark of how the belief has taken root locally. The custom is run by the neighborhood communities on a rotating basis: the donation ledger is counted in public; the sacred cups are tossed, with one face up and one face down deciding the winner; and the winning neighborhood respectfully brings the statue home to worship it for a year, to be handed on to the next neighborhood the following year. In this way the statue moves back and forth between neighborhoods, tying the different districts of all Macao together.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Mazu Memorial Ceremony · Mazu Memorial Ceremony · Mazu Memorial Ceremony · Mazu Memorial Ceremony · Mazu Memorial Ceremony · Mazu Memorial Ceremony · Mazu Memorial Ceremony.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The social and cultural functions of the Macao Mazu belief and customs have expanded from the protection of seafaring to such areas as filial devotion, the esteem of good faith, and the prayer for peace; it plays a positive role in spreading Mazu culture, maintaining family harmony, social harmony, and world peace, and in promoting the spirit of universal love. Chen Jianquan (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in November 1947, a native of the Macao Special Administrative Region. He grew up in the A-Ma neighborhood; from the age of 35 he inherited the belief and customs of his forebears and took part in promoting Mazu belief culture. At the age of 40 he became chairman of the Macao A-Ma Land-and-Water Opera Association, leading the faithful in jointly organizing, preparing, and taking part in the Mazu birthday celebrations. He took the lead in establishing a working group for promoting Mazu belief culture, organized donations for people in impoverished areas, and spread Mazu's great love. He has persisted in carrying out a series of cultural activities under the A-Ma shengong opera shed, in order to promote and publicize the Mazu belief and customs. He is a representative inheritor of the Mazu Festival (Macao Mazu Belief and Customs), a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He is a third-generation inheritor of the Macao Mazu belief and customs. He has devoted himself to the protection and transmission of the Macao Mazu belief and customs, organizing students to visit the birthday celebrations and cultivating more inheritors through oral instruction and the passing on of stories.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lin Jinbang 04-1962
- Ma Zhaosheng 05-2983
- Wu Jiang 05-2984
- Chen Jianquan 05-2985
- Li Qingxiang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。