Consul Charleson Hermosura (center) joins other guests in witnessing the 26th Meizhou Mazu Culture Tourism Festival at the Tianhou Open Square of Putian City.
(left photo) PCG Xiamen officials and family members pose before the 14.35 meter Mazu statue in Meizhou Island; and (right photo) join some Chinese officials and foreign guests after a tour of the Mazu temples.
XIAMEN 21 November 2024 --- Consul Charleson C. Hermosura, together with PCG Xiamen’s Faith Bautista, Marcilyn Tubongbanua, and Fubin Huang, attended the 9th Global Mazu Culture Forum (GMCF) at Meizhou Island, Putian City, Fujian Province from 18 to 20 November 2024.
This year’s theme is “Great Love for Peace and Mutual Learning Among Civilizations,” and hopes to impart the Mazu spirit of “moral civilization, beneficence, and great love,” as well as the marine civilization concept of “sea of peace, sea of cooperation, and sea of harmony.” The Forum aims to deepen exchanges of mutual learning between the Mazu culture and other civilizations.
The Opening Ceremony of the Forum was preceded by the 26th Meizhou Mazu Culture and Tourism Festival at the Tianhou Open Square of the Island. The grand festival featured vibrant processions, elaborate rituals, colorful performances, and fervent prayers, in the presence of Chinese government officials, worshippers, and guests that included diplomats from Fiji, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, and the Philippines.
Mazu is the goddess and patroness of the sea, believed to protect fisherman and sailors. She is widely worshipped in Fujian and Taiwan. END
