Nine Emperor Gods Festival (九皇爺)

Yellow tortoises kuih with abundance of little tortoises on the altar

Other than being known as a food haven, Penang is also rich in culture and celebrations throughout the year. The most recent one is the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. This is widely celebrated especially among the Hokkien Chinese who are Taoists. 

Tow Boo Kong Temple at Macallum Street

When:

The festival runs for the first nine days of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar and corresponding to 5 - 13 October 2013. 

Large yellow candles lit around the temple

The Rules:

The most dominant thing about this celebration is the devotees are required to be on strict vegetarian diet. Diary products, eggs as well as garlic are not allowed during this time. Roadside stalls or hawkers selling vegetarian food during this festive season will indicate their stalls with Chinese characters "Nine Emperor Gods Festival" written in red on a yellow cloth or flag. They do practice using new cooking utensils and also cutlery. Even my mom has two sets of cooking pots and woks kept in her kitchen. We are also required to new toothbrushes and also cups. 

We have a choice to go on vegetarian diet for a day, 3 days, 6 days or 9 days. Usually, we have an additional day vegetarian diet for "stomach cleansing" on the eve before we begin our vegetarian diet. 

The main altar of Nine Emperor Gods on the second floor of the temple

Prayers, Temples and Opera Shows:

During the nine-day festival, we can offer our prayers to the Nine Emperors Gods and Dou Mu (the mother of the Nine Emperor Gods) at the Nine Emperor Gods temple. The prominent temples in Penang are Tow Boo Kong Temple at Macallum Street, Burma Road (both in Penang island) and Jalan Raja Uda, Butterworth.

We should not wear black attire when we offer prayers at the temple. Those who come to the temple must be on strict vegetarian diet.

Opera show performers offering their prayers before starting the show

At the temple compound, we usually get to watch traditional Chinese opera shows or puppet shows which are meant for the Nine Emperor Gods. Unfortunately, I have never understood those shows due to language barrier and interest. I still remember my uncle and aunty were big fans of those shows and they would find out the next show schedule and made plans to go to the next temple for different nights. Most of the shows are repeated but the fans still love them. 

An opera show performer performing some rituals

Every Tow Boo Kong temple has its own procession on the last night of the festival, sending off the Nine Emperor Gods to the sea. Devotees can join in the procession or merely stand and watch. (And also watch out for traffic jam on that day!)

Vegetarian food:

Some may think that vegetarian food is boring but over the years, people have become more creative and choices of vegetarian food is now similar to non-vegetarian's. Today, we can easily get to eat vegetarian salted fish, "lor bak" (pork roll), roasted duck, mutton, fried prawn and so on. They are made of bean curd skin, mushrooms and also gluten.

Beautiful of Penang Bridge from the second floor of the temple

Recently, I have found palatable vegetarian food on my doorstep. The combination of ingredients used for the vegetarian dishes are real interesting and I plan to try them out one day. For more details, refer here: Exploring Vegetarian Dishes.

A large incense burning to keep up with long hours of prayers 

An Intriguing Question:

There is this intriguing question of whether those who are sick are allowed to take their medication if they are observing this festival. The argument is whether the medication may or may not be endorsed as vegetarian "food"! If you read the labels of some supplements, you will know that they  contain bovine. Who has the answer? Well, a Chinese physician once said to us, "Do you want to live?" I bet now you know the answer to this whole debatable issue here :)

Tow Boo Kong Temple (at Macallum Street) ~ photo taken from across the river