TAIPEI (TVBS News) — An estimated 10,000 worshippers packed Taipei's Wen Chang Temple (台北文昌宮) Friday (May 15), lining up from early morning to pray for academic success. The crowd gathered ahead of Taiwan's 2026 Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students (115年國中教育會考) this weekend. Many parents took the day off work, bringing carefully chosen offerings in hopes of securing good results for their children. The temple is dedicated to the Taoist god of academic success.
Worshippers brought offerings steeped in folk symbolism. Radishes symbolize good luck in Taiwanese, spring onions are a homophone for "intelligence" in Mandarin, garlic sounds like "able to calculate," and zongzi represent "certain success." Wenchang Dijun (文昌帝君), the Taoist deity worshipped at the temple, is traditionally associated with scholarship and examinations.
The temple gave away limited-edition stationery sets, including pencils, pens and thumbs-up shaped erasers, to those who attended the ceremony. Some parents arrived days in advance to secure a set. They joked that they hoped the supplies would help their children "write with ease" and guess correctly on questions they did not know. The ritual reflects the high stakes of Taiwan's education system, where exam results determine high school placement.
Students visited their assigned exam venues Friday afternoon to familiarize themselves with seating arrangements and layouts. More than 180,000 students will sit the exam across 231 testing centers in 18 districts nationwide. Schools arranged for teachers to escort students to the venues between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Friday to check room locations and seating charts.