A rare ritual to clebrate the goddess's birthday
Pictures and Text by: William N.P. Chai

A rare ritual of  going through the fire rings was held at the Deity Prince Na Cha Temple in Buso here recently, in conjunction with the celebration of the Birthday of the Goddess of Mercy, which falls on the 19th days of the sixth month of the Chinese lunar calender.  A group of some twenty devotees led by the medium from the temple, Mr. Ng Kee Fong walked their way through the six fire rings unhurt.

The medium Mr. Ng Kee Fong taking the lead to walk through the fire rings.

Before the ritual, the devotees made offerings to the Guan Yin also known as Goddess of Mercy and a special prayer was held  in the temple to celebrate the birthday of  the goddess. The medium went then into a trance and prepared some talisman (holy papaers) and holy water. The devotees held the talismans in between their lips and  holy water was for the devotees to drink and to wet wash their face and  their hair, in order to protect them from been getting hurt while walking through the fire rings. The ritaul started at about 10.30 pm.  and lasted for about half an hour. Six iron rings wrapped with inflammable materials were alighted and the medium took the lead to pass through while the devotees, bare-footed,  followed suit.  

Devotees walking through the fire rings.

After passing through all the six rings they walked from the side of the rings back to the starting point repeated the feast for three times . All of them finished the ritual safe and sound, unhurt by the fire, to the applause of the other on-looking deveotees.  Many of them came all the way from Bau and Kuching.  They belief that by going through the fire-rings, they could get rid of bad luck in their future undertaking and been blessed by the deity with good fortune and good health.

The medium blessing a child with the deity's seals.