The Festival is an annual event where local residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing and merit-making. Sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines by entranced devotees known as "Ma Song". The devotees will inflict all kinds of tortures to shift other worshippers evil onto themselves in order to bring luck back on the community. They are in a trance and must have faith in their gods before they can be hypnotized