♦Sacred birth celebrated on the 23rd day of the 3rd lunar month♦
Lin Muo Niang is the secular name of the Sacred Mother of Heaven. A native of Meizhou Island in Putian County, Xinghua Prefecture in Fujian Province, she often revealed her divinity by flying over the seas to save mortals. To memorialize her gracious deeds, the people of Meizhou constructed temples to worship her and honored her with the title “A Woman of Spirituality and Virtue.” In winter of the 25th year of the Emperor Gaozong of Song’s Shaoxing Era, she was given the title of “Lady Chonggu” by imperial decree, and established by later dynasties as imperial consort, heavenly consort, heavenly empress, and the Sacred Mother of Heaven with 24 lives. In many regions in Taiwan, the Sacred Mother is known as “Mazu.”