On September 5 this year (the 20th day of the 7th lunar month), the annual Yimin Festival was once again held in a Hakka village. The Taiwan Society for the Protection of Animals points out that this year some of the Hakka temples holding the Yimin Festival still maintain the custom of the "divine pig weight contest." To make their divine pigs win, contestants force-feed the pigs and restrict their movement during the rearing process, trying to fatten them to more than 1,000 Taiwanese jin.
Because the weight of a divine pig is more than five or six times that of an ordinary pig, its life is extremely painful and tormented, and so the weight contest has long been widely criticized. Animal protection groups, Hakka elders and the Council of Agriculture have repeatedly called for canceling the "divine pig weight contest" and replacing it with sacrifices of pigs of a healthy, normal weight, so as to avoid controversy over animal cruelty.
↑This year the Hsinchu County Government expanded the "Yimin Culture Festival," using village offices to provide "small" divine pigs made of eco-friendly paper pulp, encouraging residents to take part in a painting contest, with villagers voting for the top "ten most popular" divine pigs. (Photo: provided by Village Chief Liao Zhengren)
Zhu Zenghong, chief executive of the Taiwan Society for the Protection of Animals, who has for many years loudly called for promoting the cancellation of the divine pig weight contest, says that he himself is also Hakka, and he believes the divine pig "weight contest" is not an indispensable element of Hakka festivals, because every temple tells its believers that as long as they worship devoutly they will receive blessings, and the Yimin Ye faith is certainly no different.
Zhu Zenghong points out that according to this year's festival committee data, the Hukou Lianzhuang festival area has about 18,000 households in total, with 1,439 households making offerings or contributions (donations) (about 8% of total households), while households taking part in the "divine pig" weight-contest offerings account for only 4.4% of these, with about 64 divine pigs of 400 Taiwanese jin or more.
In other words, more than 95% of Yimin believers taking part in the festival did not join the "divine pig weight contest," and their sincerity in worship was not diminished in the least. Hsinchu County Councilor Lin Zhihua, whose constituency is in Hukou Township, also fulfilled his father's wish by offering a "creative rice pig" to the gods and then distributing it to low-income households in the area.
In addition, the Society for the Protection of Animals also praised the Hsinchu County Government for expanding the "painted divine pig contest" within this year's "Yimin Culture Festival," affirming Hsinchu County Magistrate Qiu Jingchun's dedication to enhancing folk activities.
The "painted divine pig contest" not only opens professional painting of "large" divine pigs to competitors nationwide, putting the winning works on public display and parading them through the streets, but also, through village offices, provides "small" divine pigs made of eco-friendly paper pulp, encouraging residents to take part in the painting contest. Participants' works are displayed at Hukou Xiansheng Temple, and villagers vote for the top "ten most popular" painted divine pigs, while participants can receive a 1,000-yuan gift voucher, and villagers who take part in the voting can also join a lucky draw.
