Bai Tian Gong is also the Jade Emperor's birthday. The 9th day of the New Year is a day for Chinese to offer prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven. This day is important to Hokkiens. Come midnight of the 8th day of the New Year, Hokkiens will offer thanks giving prayers to the Emperor of Heaven.
The tributes used for Bai Tian Gong.
Food offered on Bai Tian Gong.
Taoists Priests performing ritual during Jade Emperor's birthday.
During a Chinese New Year of Ming Dynasty, there was a bandit raid in the province of Hokkien. These intruders however robbed and burned down villages, attacked and killed the villagers. The poeple of the villages were in fear and escaped from their burnt villages during the night. Some of the villages then hid themselves among the sugarcane fields. Needless to say, those villages prayed to Heaven God for salvation during their hideout. The pursuing intruders spent many days trying to locate and hunt them but to no avail. On the 9th day of that Chinese New Year, they finally gave up and returned to their region.
So from this story, sugarcane had protected the Hokkiens from certain extermination generations ago. The pair of sugarcane symbolises unity, cooperation and strength. The sugarcane itself is a symbol of harmony and a token which can bring good and "sweet" results.
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