Inside Daxi’s Lunar June 24 Festival

A Firsthand Look at Daxi’s Other New Year

Cathy Teng　/　photos Jimmy Lin

August 2026

中文

00:00

Guan Sheng Dijun’s birthday on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month is Daxi’s “other New Year.”

On ordinary days, Daxi’s Western-style archway façades and historic streets form the familiar backdrop of daily life. But when Guan Sheng Dijun’s birthday arrives on the 24th day of the sixth lunar month (aka Lunar June 24), it is as if the entire town has pressed a “transform” button.

As the sixth lunar month begins, everyone from vehicle-shop owners and assistant bank managers to furniture makers and noodle-shop assistants quietly take on another identity—members of shetou, Daxi’s local procession associations—without having to duck into a phone booth to change. By day, they do their regular jobs; by night, they pull on troupe uniforms and practice for the procession on the 24th. When the day arrives, some carry palanquins, some play beiguan music, some perform dragon dances, and some shoulder imposing giant deity costumes. Together they celebrate the birthday of Guan Sheng Dijun, whom locals affectionately call Shengdi Gong (and who is also known as Guan Yu and Guan Gong in Chinese and as Lord Shengdi and Lord Guan, among other names, in English).

People wearing giant deity costumes passing Daxi’s Western-style archway façades create a uniquely local fusion of East and West.

The procession sets out

At seven in the morning, music from the beiguan opera Luotong Shaobei rings out. Then the Daxi Coterie’s palanquin team lifts Shengdi Gong’s hexagonal palanquin onto their shoulders and sets out from Daxi Puji Temple. The palanquin passes through the old streets, followed by a large crowd of worshippers who accompany Shengdi Gong as he makes his rounds through the communities under his protection.

At daybreak outside Furen Temple, members of the Daxi Coterie, dressed in yellow, reverently welcome Guan Sheng Dijun’s arrival. They are the first group out and the last back at the temple on Lunar June 24. (photo by Cathy Teng)

A beiguan ensemble plays as it makes its way through Daxi Old Street, its traditional music becoming one of the defining sounds of Lunar June 24.

After leaving the old streets and following the roads out of town, the scenery shifts from shops and houses to farmland and mountains. Local residents have much earlier in the day already set up incense tables by the roadside. Holding burning incense, they wait to welcome Shengdi Gong, asking for one simple blessing: tranquility throughout the community. The scene repeats year after year.

The palanquin leaves the old town and enters fields and rural settlements, visiting worshippers along the route. (photo by Cathy Teng)

Devout worshippers wait by the roadside for Guan Sheng Dijun’s palanquin to pass. (photos by Cathy Teng)

For many years, the Daxi Coterie has accompanied Shengdi Gong through Yuemei, Tianxin, Meihua, Sanceng, Touliao, Neizha, and other communities. To this day, its palanquin team insists on walking the entire route, taking Shengdi Gong step by step through the places under his protection.

For more than a century, the Daxi Coterie has upheld the tradition of carrying the palanquin entirely by human effort. (photos by Cathy Teng)

Afternoon: the troupes enter town

In the afternoon, the scene shifts to the old town. Each shetou association prepares its performance troupe and they enter the streets in sequence. Lead banners representing participating groups go first, followed by lion and dragon dance companies, people in both smaller and giant deity costumes, and an array of distinctive parade performers. Gong, drum, and firecracker sounds come in relentless waves, making it hard to look away.

Members of the Farming Group are mostly farmers from Yuemei. Because the association’s principal deity is Shennong (the Divine Farmer or God of Agriculture), its performance troupe incorporates agricultural imagery. Its ox-plow formation, built around cultivation of the land, stands out among the troupes in Daxi’s Lunar June 24 procession. (left photo by Jimmy Lin, right photo by Cathy Teng)

The festival is part of childhood in Daxi. Children grow up taking part with their parents amid drums, banners, and procession troupes. They are not just spectators; step by step, they become participants in the tradition. (left and center photos by Cathy Teng, right photo by Jimmy Lin)

Daxi’s Lunar June 24 procession primarily features local shetou groups and their performance troupes, but visiting entertainers invited from elsewhere to celebrate Guan Sheng Dijun’s birthday add variety to the parade. Shown here is the Sulan wedding formation performed by the Bao Family’s Six Sisters from Chaozhou company. (photo by Cathy Teng)

Taiwanese creativity is everywhere in the procession troupes.

(left) The deity Nezha takes the wheel of a sports car. (photo by Cathy Teng)

(top right) Guan Gong (another name for Guansheng Dijun) really is arriving on horseback! (photo by Jimmy Lin)

(bottom right) A local senior citizens’ association presents its traditional bamboo-tube cannon. (photo by Jimmy Lin)

One troupe follows another. When they encounter an incense table set up by a household or arrive in front of a shetou clubhouse, they stop to perform as a sign of respect. Residents lining the streets do more than watch: They prepare cold drinks, hand out towels, and sometimes pull out garden hoses so troupe members can rinse off and cool down. The deities advance and residents welcome them, and through this ebb and flow, the festival keeps moving forward.

When they reach a roadside incense table or a shetou clubhouse, the performance troupes stop for a while to pay their respects. (photos by Cathy Teng)

Households along the route offer cold drinks and water for troupe members to rinse off and cool down. Deity figures make ritual stops along the route, bestowing blessings and warding off evil and misfortune. (photos by Cathy Teng)

Ornately dressed figures wearing giant deity costumes move among the troupes. With their towering forms and measured steps, they are very striking against the backdrop of the century-old streets. Up close, their elaborate costumes are the crystallization of folk craftsmanship; from afar, they look like legendary figures who have stepped out of the streetscape, adding a touch of fantasy to the procession.

Featuring painted and embroidered details, the giant deity costumes are works of art.

Figures wearing three-meter-tall giant deity costumes move through Daxi’s streets. Their ornate armor and towering forms stand out against the everyday streetscape. (photos by Cathy Teng)

Firecrackers play an important role in procession rituals, welcoming deities and warding off evil. As troupes pass through smoke and bursts of flame, the traditional rite takes on a vivid presence in the streets.

This year, two afternoon rain showers fail to stop the festival. Figures in their giant deity costumes shelter with everyone else under the arcades, or wear plastic bags over their heads, bringing a touch of everyday charm to the solemn procession.

The rainy-day backup plan. (photos by Cathy Teng)

A temple festival is a collective effort. People of different generations and from different backgrounds walk together in shared faith.

Nightfall: The streets come alive

As the workday ends, more Daxi residents change out of their work clothes and take to the streets, joining a festival that belongs to the whole town. Familiar streets grow more crowded after dark. Phone cameras follow the moving performance troupes, and the crowds eventually converge on Daxi Puji Temple.

Techno Prince Nezha performers stand out in the procession, their brightly colored costumes dazzling under the lights after dark.

After entering the old town, the associations take turns paying respects at Furen Temple and Daxi Puji Temple, bringing the festival atmosphere to a climax.

The first palanquin to set out does not complete the final leg of its journey until deep into the night. At 4:42 a.m., Shengdi Gong is formally returned to his throne in the temple, bringing the long Lunar June 24 celebration to a close.

This is more than a procession. It involves a faith upheld collectively by a town and its people, handed down from one generation to the next. On this day, it draws Daxi residents—usually busy with their separate lives—back together.

This scene does not look in the least out of place on the streets of Daxi.

Perhaps the energy and emotion of the event can only be fully understood by experiencing Lunar June 24 firsthand. Perhaps we’ll meet here again next year.