Temple Fair (Mount Tai Dongyue Temple Fair)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Temple Fair

Applicant: Tai'an City, Shandong Province

Item No.: 991

Project No.: Ⅹ - 84

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: folk customs

Region: Shandong Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Tai'an City, Shandong Province

Protection unit: Tai'an Tourism Association

Introduction to Temple Fair (Dongyue Temple Fair of Mount Tai)

Applicant: Tai'an City, Shandong 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.

Mount Tai Dongyue Temple Fair is a kind of comprehensive folk custom activity integrating religious culture and commercial trade. It has long been popular in Mount Tai Dongyue Temple in Tai'an City, Shandong Province. It originated from the folk worship consciousness of Mount Tai and the belief of Dongyue emperor and Bixia Yuanjun. It was initially formed in the Han Dynasty, developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and gradually flourished in the yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China.

Since the Song Dynasty, the 28th of March in the lunar calendar, the birthday of the great Dongyue emperor, was designated as the day of sacrifice, thus forming a fixed period for the temple fair of Dongyue Temple. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Mount Tai Temple Fair was once replaced by an irregular material exchange club. During the cultural revolution, even material exchange meetings were cancelled. In 1986, Mount Tai Temple Fair was restored in the area of the former site of daiyueguan. The fair lasted from May 6 to 12 of the Gregorian calendar. In addition to normal religious activities, the temple fair mainly focused on material trading, cultural entertainment and tourism activities. The temple fair of Mount Tai in 1991 lasted for six days, with 1.2 million participants. In 1992, the scale of Taishan temple fair was expanded, with Hongmen road as the central axis, baihequan in the south, Guandi temple in the north, Puzhao temple in the west, wangmuchi in the East, covering an area of one square kilometer, and the duration of the fair was extended to ten days.

Mount Tai Dongyue Temple Fair is an important part of Chinese folk culture. It starts from the folk, with distinctive features, grand scale, rich content and standardized system. It embodies the unique outlook on life, values, morality, philosophy and the political, economic and cultural life of the Chinese nation. Mount Tai Dongyue Temple Fair is a model of temple fair culture in China and even in the world. In the process of development, its influence radiates all over the country and becomes the source of Dongyue Temple Fair. At present, some excellent folk culture styles in Dongyue Temple Fair of Mount Tai are endangered and need to be protected.