China local temple fair is a kind of folk activity with multi-ethnic culture, with various forms and rich contents, which has played a positive role in inheriting the traditional culture of China. In many places, there is nothing like visiting temple fairs during the Spring Festival, which is very lively. Let's take a look at the characteristic culture of local temple fairs.

Temple Fair

At the temple fair, there are many folk activities, such as touching stone monkeys, playing with money at the nest wind bridge and so on. Below the arc-shaped stone carving in Baiyunguan Temple, there is a relief of a stone monkey. People think that touching the stone monkey can eliminate illness and prolong life, so they compete to touch it.

There is a big copper coin hanging in the bridge opening under the Wofeng Bridge. There is a small copper bell in the hole of the copper coin with the words "The bell rings for good fortune" written on it. If you can hit the copper bell with your coin, you will get what you want. These two items are the most lively activities at the temple fair.

With the changes of the times, many new contents have been added to the ancient temple fairs, such as business negotiation during the temple fairs, but showing folk customs has always been the main feature of the temple fairs. The contents include lion dance, traditional national flower show, modern dance, Beijing folk character modeling, traditional business "cover" exhibition, old Beijing photo exhibition, folk handicraft exhibition, special book fair, Beijing opera, martial arts and acrobatics. Temple fair integrates tourism, leisure and entertainment, shopping and catering, and has distinctive traditional ethnic characteristics.

Sacrifice ceremony

The custom of temple fairs is closely related to the religious activities of Buddhist temples and Taoist temples, and it is often necessary to hold sacrifice ceremonies. For example, the "line image" activity. "Walking like a statue" is a religious ceremony in which statues of gods and buddhas are mounted on floats and paraded in urban and rural areas, so it is also called "walking around the city" and "patrolling the city".

After Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved to Luoyang in the 9th year (AD 485), Buddhism was promoted, and a Buddha statue travel meeting was held every year on Sakyamuni's birthday. The day before the Buddha's trip, all the temples in Luoyang sent the Buddha to Jingming Temple. For a long time, there were more than a thousand Buddha statues.

When traveling, the procession is led by the lion to ward off evil spirits, followed by the treasure-covered banners and other buildings, with all kinds of music, juggling and excitement. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, most of the temple fairs' welcoming the gods and going out on patrol were the inheritance and development of the image activities in this period. And gradually extended to Sichuan, Huguang and Xixia. It was only after the Yuan and Ming Dynasties that the trend of images declined, which was rarely recorded.

pray for children

as soon as the temple fair opened, all directions came to worship, worship the gods and offer incense, praying to return home. This is an activity around the gods of "temple" and "hui", which is the theme of traditional temple fairs. Among them, praying for children with witchcraft most typically reflects the core of China traditional culture, which is determined by the nature of China agricultural society.

thousands of years of feudal society, people's living environment has basically not changed, and the reproduction of future generations has become a top priority for thousands of years. Therefore, praying for the son, an ancient form of witchcraft, will be attached to various forms of assembly and displayed. Typical temple fairs in this respect include Renzu Temple Fair in Huaiyang, Henan, Mazu Temple Fair in Tianjin, Shuanglin Temple Fair in Pingyao, Shanxi, Miaofeng Mountain and Baiyunguan Walking Fair in Beijing.