TAIPEI -- Hundreds of high school students and their parents gathered on Saturday at the Taipei Confucius Temple to pray for good luck in an upcoming college entrance exam.

Honoring Confucius, China's most revered ancient educator, the Taipei Confucius Temple held a special prayer ceremony for candidates of the General Scholastic Ability Test, a major college entrance exam that will take place in mid-January this year.

Students wrote their names, dates of birth, home addresses, exam locations and candidate numbers on prayer cards provided by the temple. They then followed ritual procedures, including bowing to the memorial tablet of Confucius, before the cards were collected and placed in a blessing box.

"I felt a sense of calm when bowing and praying," said an examinee surnamed Wu. "Preparations for the exam have been quite stressful lately. Today, I hope to express my respect to Confucius, and also draw encouragement from the sense of ritual."

Some parents offered prayers on behalf of their children. One parent, surnamed Chen, shared that she prayed for her daughter, who had been working extremely hard in preparation for the exam.

"There isn't much we can do as parents to help her directly, and I just hope that paying respects to Confucius at the temple can bring her some peace of mind," she said.

Huang Sui-ping, a staff member at the Taipei Confucius Temple, said the temple had held prayer ceremonies for college entrance examinees for more than a decade.

"The purpose is to convey good wishes through traditional rituals, in the hope of helping students ease exam-related stress and do their best in the exam," Huang said.