Miaoli temple offers blessing lamps for pets to cater to the age of pet-mania

Miaoli temple offers blessing lamps for pets to cater to the age of pet-mania

2024-03-12

In this age of pet-mania, you can even find religious services for animals. A temple in Miaoli is offering blessing lamps for pets, to bring them protection through the coming year. Lighting blessing lamps has become popular around Lunar New Year in recent decades. But religious experts caution that loving pet owners shouldn’t get a blessing lamp frivolously. Make sure you read up on the customs around blessing lamps, and take them seriously, even if their beneficiary has four paws.

This list of pets’ names is not a database of the clients of a pet store. A temple is offering to light blessing lamps for pet owners’ fur babies.

The name is entered into the system and then stuck onto the lamp. With the support of the deity, the creature will be blessed and protected. This temple in Miaoli’s Zhunan Township offers the unusual service for local animals.

Pet owner
If you have a pet you’re bound to love it and hope it stays safe.

Lin Wen-hsiang
Temple guardian
Some dogs and cats don’t have health insurance and vets’ fees can be very expensive. We want to light blessing lamps for them, or peace lamps, to pray for their safety.

As people have fewer and fewer children, pets are becoming more prominent members of the family. That’s created an unexpected income stream for this temple. But pet owners should pay attention to the traditions and taboos around blessing lamps, lest their badly-formed prayers prove counterproductive.

Yang Teng-ko
Folk custom expert
Blessing lamps are for living pets. They are not suitable for deceased pets. Blessing lamps must be kept alight for the whole year, and cannot be blown out. That would represent the end of the blessing. And you cannot replace the pet’s name with a fake human name to smuggle it into a temple which does not offer blessing lamps to animals.

LED lamps have replaced traditional yellow lightbulbs, making blessing lamps more of a multi-coloured spectacle. The towers of lamps also revolve, creating a truly technological atmosphere. But how is a believer supposed to find their lamp among all this glitz and sparkle?

You can enter your phone number to find the code of your lamp, which tells you exactly where it is. The onward march of technology is bringing fresh customs even into temples.

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少子化下養毛孩夯! 宮廟推"寵物光明燈"新商機

2024-03-12

少子化時代，不少人養寵物當小孩，新的一年，當然也要幫「毛孩」家人點燈求平安，苗栗縣有宮廟，順勢推出「毛小孩點光明燈」服務，還有廟宇，幫寵物安太歲；另外，有宮廟結合科技，只要民眾輸入手機，就能在茫茫燈海中，快速找到自己的光明燈。

這一長串毛孩的芳名錄，可不是寵物店替客戶建檔資料，而是宮廟要幫飼主心愛的毛孩子們，點上光明燈。

電腦登錄名條，貼在光明燈上，在神明加持下，保祐平安，這是苗栗竹南鎮一間宮廟，提供幫寵物點上光明燈的另類服務。

[[飼主]]
“養寵物的話，你勢必是會很喜歡牠的，希望牠平安”

[[宮廟負責人林文祥]]
“因為有一些貓狗，牠們是沒有健保的，診治費非常的貴，那我們都是希望說，來幫牠點個光明燈還是平安燈，讓牠祈求平安”

少子化吹起的寵物飼養潮，意外幫宗教開拓另類財源；但飼主必須看過來，想幫毛孩子點燈求平安，得先掌握禁忌要點，以免祈福不成，招致負面影響。

[[民俗專家楊登嵙]]
“光明燈是為活寵物祈福，不適用於過世的寵物。光明燈終年要保持明亮，不可以熄滅，熄滅代表祈福停止。不可以用人名隱瞞，偷偷到沒有提供寵物光明燈服務的宮廟，點寵物光明燈”

LED光明燈，取代傳統黃光燈泡，更加七彩耀眼，再搭上旋轉座台，科技味十足，但問題來了，眼花撩亂下，要怎麼在茫茫燈海中，找到專屬自己的燈區?

輸入手機號碼，就是尋燈的專屬座標碼，你的光明燈在哪，一目了然，科技輔助宗教科儀，另類放光明。

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