[music playing]
NARRATOR: Southeast Asia.
Every year during the 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar,
thousands of Taoists throughout the region
celebrate a 2000-year-old tradition called
the Nine Emperor Gods Festival.
The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a very, very important
festival in southeast Asian Chinese communities,
and it revolves around a carnival like ritual that
takes place for nine full days.
The point of this festival is to summon the very, very powerful
nine emperor gods, because they're seen
as residing up in the skies.
NARRATOR: The nine sky lords are believed by Taoists
to have been the original rulers of China
and the offspring of the supreme god of creation.
According to legend, the nine emperor gods
come from the nine stars that make up
the Big Dipper, seven of which are visible
and two that are invisible.
They are tasked with controlling the universe
and keeping order on Earth.
There is this belief in Taoism and Chinese culture in general
that the supernatural world takes
the shape of a bureaucratic empire,
and there is a very detailed hierarchy
with ranks and bureaus.
And the fact that these are known as the nine emperor gods
show that are very high ranking gods
in this celestial bureaucracy, and that they
do have a very important function
of governing basically the celestial realm,
but also the human realm.
NARRATOR: In order to assure the will of the gods
is honored for the upcoming year, select devotees channel
and even embody the nine emperor gods during the festival
processions.
There are typically about nine spirit mediums who
enter a trance and then channel these gods to bring them down
and to keep them very content and happy.
The reason why it's crucial to keep them happy
is because they keep an account, a record,
of everything that happens on Earth.
They control human destiny.
At the end of the nine days, when the festival reaches
its climax, the gods eventually return to the stars
from which they came.
NARRATOR: Curiously, this idea of nine gods or overlords
watching over earth can be found in cultures
throughout the world.
The Aztecs of Mesoamerica were known to worship nine gods
called the Lords of the Night.
In the Norse tradition, nine gods survived the Ragnarok,
or earthly destruction.
According to Buddhist legend, the emperor Ashoka
consulted with a secret society called
the Nine Unknown Men, who were said to possess
the knowledge of the universe.
The ancient Etruscans of Italy also
believed in nine gods that could be persuaded to influence
the fate of mankind.
And in Greek mythology, Zeus led a council of nine gods
created to oversee humanity.
The canonical Olympian gods are imagined to be about 12,
and they have a sort of governing body as well,
and so they have a council.
For the most part, the nine most important gods are there.
Sitting at the top of that is Zeus.
These make up sort of the power structure of the heavens,
and they occasionally meet to determine what they're
going to do about mankind.
Zeus created the Council of Nine
and this was Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena, Diameter, Hephaestus,
Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, and Zeus himself,
and these are the gods that then could interact with humans
I guess to keep us in line.