媽祖

choi

Huihu Wong, Mazu Mania: Free Food, Great Parties. Wait, This Is a Religious Festival?  It's the most popular 300-kilometer, nine-day hike in the world -- now this is how to celebrate a birthday, CNN, Apr 12, 2013.
http://travel.cnn.com/taiwan-maz ... l-pilgrimage-226351

My comment:
(a) Mazu March Mania  三月瘋媽祖
(i) 媽祖 is spelled Matsu in Taiwan; Mazu is pinyin)
(ii) NCAA has March Madness (for college basketball, men and women).
http://www.ncaa.com/march-madness
(iii) Naturally the march in "March Mania" is different from the march in "March Madness": the former means a walk whereas the latter, name of a month.
(b) The report states, "The city is the start and end point of the festival's highlight -- the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage, which begins from Jenn Lann Temple."
(i) 大甲鎮瀾宮
http://www.dajiamazu.org.tw/
(ii) is located at 台中市大甲區, which until the end of 2010 was 臺中縣 大甲鎮 (when the Ma administration merged old 臺中縣 and 台中市 to create a new 台中市).
(iii) 大甲歷史
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%94%B2%E6%AD%B7%E5%8F%B2
(大甲地區是平埔族道卡斯族的主要活動範圍; 大甲之名則是道卡斯族（又稱斗葛族）的閩南語音轉)
(c) Mazu patrolling  媽祖遶境
(d) "Beigang's Chaotian Temple"  北港朝天宫
http://www.matsu.org.tw/
, located at 雲林縣 北港鎮.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%B8%AF%E9%8E%AE_(%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3)
(ancient 笨港 was divided into 北笨港（今北港）and 南笨港 (presently 嘉義縣 新港鄉)
(e) A graphic shows itinerary of patrolling:
(i) Day 1 Nanyao Temple, Changhua City  彰化市-南瑤宮
(ii) Day 2 Fushing Temple, Siluo Township, Yunlin County  雲林縣 西螺鎮 福興宮
(iii) Days 3 Fengtien Temple, Singang Township, Chiayi County  嘉義縣 新港鄉 奉天宮
(iv) Day 6 Chengan Temple, Beidou Township, Changhua County  彰化縣 北斗鎮 奠安宮
(v) Day 7 Tienhou Temple, Changhua City  彰化市 天后宮
(vi) Day 8 Chaohsing Temple, Singshuei Township, Taichung County
臺中縣 清水鎮 朝興宮 (since the end of 2011: 臺中市 清水區)

(f) I was born and raised in City of Kaohsiung. So I did not see it  (while in Taiwan) in person or in television.