At dawn the next morning, the village began bustling before it was fully light.
It was time to raise the ridgepole at Tianhou Palace.
Raising the ridgepole was the most important stage of building a house. It had to be done during the rising tide, symbolizing a boat rising with the water.
Almost all the men in the village got up early and headed to Tianhou Palace to see whether they could lend a hand. When the ridgepole chants began later, they would also have to call out auspicious responses from below. The more people, the better, and the livelier it would be.
The rules for raising the ridgepole at Tianhou Palace were no different from those for a private home. The procedure was much the same, and just as grand.
The whole process could be divided into several stages: making offerings to the ridgepole, raising it, catching bundles, tossing treats from the beam, and entertaining the craftsmen.
As the saying went, "With a beam overhead, there is grain in the house; without a beam overhead, the livestock will not thrive."
People believed that only when a house's ridgepole was set straight, securely, and amid lively celebration could the household prosper. The same went for temples: their incense offerings would flourish, and they would shelter the fishermen along the coast.
Before raising the ridgepole, offerings had to be made to the gods. These included a "whole pig"-one pig's head and one pig's tail, representing an entire pig.
Fish, goose, tofu, eggs, salt, and soy sauce were arranged in sets of five or seven on red-lacquered wooden offering trays at the upper end of the altar table, along with twenty-four bowls of other dishes and twelve platters of fruits from north and south.
Everything had been prepared early that morning. By