Temple Fair (Foshan ancestral temple fair)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Temple Fair (Foshan ancestral temple fair)

Applicant: Foshan City, Guangdong Province

Item No.: 991

Project No.: Ⅹ - 84

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Guangdong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Foshan City, Guangdong Province

Protection unit: Foshan zumiao Museum

Temple Fair (Foshan ancestral temple fair)

Applicant: Foshan City, Guangdong Province

Temple fair, also known as "Temple market", is a kind of folk belief activities held regularly in and around temples, which is popular all over the country. Some large temple fairs had a considerable scale in the Tang Dynasty, and they are still handed down and have a wide influence. All kinds of temple fairs have their own time, most of them are a traditional Lunar Festival or a religious and folk belief day. Temple Fair has the characteristics of concentration, group and fixation. During the temple fair, all kinds of folk activities and technical trade activities can be fully displayed in public, and the activities are rich and colorful. The God greeting competition is also a form of temple fair. In Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, traditional temple fairs, which are popular among believers, are all introduced from the mainland and have a close relationship with the mother. In the overseas Chinese residential areas, many temple fairs brought from the motherland are full of incense, inheriting the cultural blood of the Chinese nation in a special way.

The northern emperor's birthday temple fair is a comprehensive folk cultural activity popular in the Pearl River Delta, among which the northern emperor's birthday temple fair of Foshan ancestral temple has the longest history, the largest scale and the most far-reaching influence.

Every year, the third day of the third month of the third lunar month is the birthday of the northern emperor. The temple fair of the northern emperor's birthday in Foshan ancestral temple consists of two parts: one is the ceremony of the northern emperor's birthday, which includes paying homage to the temple, the northern emperor's parade, acting to pay homage to the gods and burning a big explosion; the other is the activities related to the Northern emperor's birthday, such as the ancestral temple from the first to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and the first and fifteenth days of each month, the northern emperor's sitting in the ancestral hall from the sixth day of the first lunar month to the thirtieth of March, the spring and autumn edicts from the fifteenth day of February and the fifteenth day of August, On the ninth day of September, the northern emperor Chongsheng "feisheng Jinque" and so on. During the temple fair, hundreds of thousands of people in Juzhen competed for the ceremony, which was very spectacular. After the reform and opening up, with the continuous strengthening of people's spiritual and cultural needs, the northern emperor's birthday activities spontaneously resumed among the people, showing a momentum of prosperity year by year. In recent years, the temple fair of the northern emperor's birthday of Foshan ancestral temple has begun to present a grand occasion of "advocating dozens of books and making more than ten li noise".

Foshan ancestral temple fair integrates folk beliefs and mass cultural activities, with the characteristics of secularity, mass and entertainment. It provides specific and vivid reference materials for the study of Guangdong local culture and folk culture.