Week 4 - Thien Hau Temple

This past weekend, I went to the Thien Hau Temple in Chinatown to worship the gods on the last full moon of the lunar new year. The temple was pretty busy. There were people everywhere putting together plates of fruit and meats to give as an offering to the different gods. There were people lighting incense sticks and praying on their knees. There were people eating the food that volunteers of the temple have cooked. The Thien Hau Temple is a very large and grand building. When you look at it from the outside, there are a lot of gold and red embellishments - colors that signify good fortune. The inside is no different; there are intricate statues and brightly colored patterns on the walls and ceilings. On the ceiling hung multiple chandeliers and lanterns. Because of the warm yellow/orange hues they gave off, it made me feel like I was stepping into a magical place. The room felt very inviting and made me feel almost like I was safe and protected. On top of that, all the smoke from the incense created a cloudy haze throughout the whole room. The way the lighting looked through all the smoke made everything look like it was glowing, which added to that "magical place" effect, which I thought was very appropriate since we were in a place to worship gods.