Wing: Rain dance together

Rain dance together

Translated by Karen L., Written by 翼雙飛 (Wing Wing)
Original: http://www.vjmedia.com.hk/articles/2014/04/01/68016

There was village called Hong Hong, where its water supply had relied on a river nearby, however, the amount of water there was extreme rather than stable. A severe drought hit the village another year, driving the river to run dry. Some villagers decided to drown a couple of virgins, a boy and a girl, as sacrifices to the River God after several discussions. Luckily, the rain poured down a few days later following the ritual. The river was swollen and saved the rest of the villagers out of water urgency. Since then, these villagers stipulated to have a couple of virgins drowned each year, acting as the lifeblood of the village. And it worked, at least for many years.

This year, once again, the water level descended. Villagers (now were aged) who brought up that suggestion, played the same old trick. Only for this time, it made no difference carrying out ritual one after another. Facing the crisis, the whole village stood and nonplussed.

That’s when a few young villagers returned home after studying in the city. As soon as they saw that the village had come to this predicament, they criticized the old villagers’ superstition being no help at all while they tried to apply their knowledge on developing underground water.

These young men had planned the entire blueprint of well-digging, and they had also arranged enough equipment and manpower. Yet the time when they were on the point of work, the old villagers stepped in and stood in the way. Those old villagers shouted “You can’t be that aggressive! If you dig randomly, it will not only affect the feng shui of our village, but also offend the Mountain God and the Earth God! The outcome of it is far more severe than drought!”

The “aggressive” approach was literally killed. And the lack of water was still going on. Some villagers heard that the village of Colombia and the island of Formosa suffered from water insufficiency before. But the village of Colombia was far away, and had to take 3 months to be there, so, they decided to send a villager to the island of Formosa seeking for experience, which took only 3-day walk.

After a few days, the young men brought back some sketches and notes from the island of Formosa. He said, “The island of Formosa have built a reservoir for many years to collect rainwater in Winters. That’s why they have sufficient water supply." And the other young men followed by, “Then we should probably build one for collecting water.” But all the old villagers shook their heads and said, “No, no, no, the situation there and here are different, as well as the ground. We can’t simply copy from them.” That’s how the reservoir planning was banned.

The lack of water supply had not been solved, then what should they do? After discussions by the old villagers, they decided everyone in the village to wear glass skirts and do rain dance outside the ancestral hall, to declare determination asking the God to rain. They also mentioned that there was no limit of time for rain dance, and if it doesn't rain, they shall dance continually till their bodies can't bear such burden anymore. The young villagers was in an uproar hearing such worthless methods, and they tried to stop the others. Yet the old villagers didn't even give a damn, "What do you know? Don't tell me you have better ideas! When the time we succeeded sacrificing virgins to the River God, you were still in short pants!"