Meizhou Mazu prayed for blessings.

Did you go to Meizhou Island this Spring Festival? The New Year's blessing ceremony was held as scheduled in Meizhou Island, where people were crowded with mountains and incense. People expressed their most sincere wishes for peace and health in Mazu Tempel, the largest and earliest city in the world.

The most widely known thing about Meizhou Island is that it is the birthplace of Mazu. Mazu is a mortal, and her name is Lin Moniang. According to legend, the word "silent" in her name comes from an anecdote that she didn't cry or make trouble when she was born.

Mo Niang is smart and kind, and always takes the lead in solving problems for the villagers. Unfortunately, at the age of twenty-eight, Mo Niang was hit on the head by a mast while rescuing a wrecked ship at sea and was buried in the water. In order to commemorate her kindness and feat, the local people built a small ancestral temple for her in the fourth year of Yongxi in the Northern Song Dynasty (AD 987). This ancestral temple is the embryonic form of Mazu Tempel on Meizhou Island.

There are two key factors behind the transformation of Mo Niang's image from an ordinary woman to a patron saint as famous as Confucius and Guan Gong.

First, Fujian, the birthplace of Mazu, is a big coastal province. The province's economy and people's livelihood are extremely dependent on marine fishing and trade. However, the undeveloped navigation technology in ancient times led to the extremely high risk of offshore operation. Local fishermen and boaters need food to alleviate their fear of the sea.

Coincidentally, there has always been a legend of Mazu in the local area. Her kind and helpful personality, courageous acts of righteousness, selfless spirit and gentleness of women make her a perfect image of the patron saint of the sea. Mazu equals Poseidon, and this belief is gradually spread and accepted.

Secondly, during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Fujian's maritime trade reached its peak. Quanzhou Port, as the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, is famous in Asian countries, and Mazu, which has been passed down from generation to generation and represents marine culture, has a higher and higher status in this period.

During Zheng He's voyage to the Western Ocean in the Ming Dynasty, every time he sailed to a new port, he built a Mazu Tempel to pray for peace. Because of him, Mazu culture has been widely spread overseas.

In history, a large number of overseas Chinese immigrants in Fujian believed in Mazu, which deepened the spread of Mazu overseas. This is also the main reason why Mazu Tempel can be seen in Malaysia and other countries where Chinese live today.

In Meizhou Island, the birthplace of Mazu, there is a statue of Mazu 14 meter high in Mazu Tempel. In this statue, this woman with a happy hand and a peaceful face witnessed the process of Fujian ancestors opening up the sea and going to the world. Today, she still overlooks the sea of Meizhou Island and watches every Chinese son and daughter who sails and sails.

Mazu Tempel in Meizhou is the earliest Mazu Tempel in the world. It has been rebuilt and expanded many times, and now it has long been famous in the world. Today, Meizhou Island has beautiful seashore scenery and profound cultural heritage, and is an excellent place for pilgrimage and sightseeing. Every morning, we look at Mazu Tempel in the distance, and the morning glow sets it off, making it more sacred and magnificent.

Meizhou Island is also known as Mecca City in the East. In addition to the annual New Year greeting ceremony, March 23rd is Mazu's birthday and September 9th is Mazu's Ascension Day, with hundreds of millions of people paying homage. It is also a holy place for Chinese sailors around the world to worship and for compatriots at home and abroad.