Miaoli City Office held an eye-dotting ceremony on Feb. 13 to mark the beginning of the “Dragon Bombing,” a traditional Hakka event to celebrate the Lantern Festival.

Returning for the 21st edition, the Dragon Bombing will feature a series of events including eye-dotting ceremony, street parade, the “Dragon Bombing Night,” and bombing the lion dance, which symbolizes casting out evil spirits and bring fortune and prosperity.

Held at the plaza in front of Yuqing Temple (玉清宮), the ceremony was attended by Miaoli County Magistrate Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌), Miaoli City Mayor Chiu Chen-chun (邱鎮軍), and Deputy Minister Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), as well as lawmakers Chen Chao-ming (陳超明) and Hsu Chih-jung (徐志榮).

At the ceremony, City Mayor Chiu dotted the eyeballs for the eleven painted dragons with chicken blood mixed with rice wine and cinnabar as a symbol of giving these dragons life to enable dragon dance teams to carry out street parade for casting out evil spirits.

Following the eye-dotting ceremony, each dragon dance team lined up to form a gate for the public to pass through, a traditional custom believed to bring fortune in the new year.

A dance battle among the eleven teams was held later on. This year, the participants included Hefeng Dragon Dance Troupe (禾豐龍藝隊), Department of Civil and Disaster Prevention Engineering and Department of Cultural Tourism of the National United University, with the later composing of mostly female members.

Sanyi Dragon Dance Troupe (三義龍藝隊), which had participated in the competition four years ago, returned this year with a dragon ball sculptured into the shape of Miaoli’s cat mascot and a dragon head that incorporated elements of burl sculpture, a representative wood sculpture art of Sanyi.

Er Gang Ping Dragon Dance Troupe (二岡坪龍隊) from Touwu Township, on the other hand, returned after nine years with a traditional style of large dragon head and curly tail to bring back the public’s collective memories of dragon dance.

Mayor Chiu noted that the dragon dance and the traditional craftsmanship of making dragon figure are now passing on to the younger generation. He expected the youngsters to innovate, advocate, and preserve the 200-year-old Hakka folk custom.