Xuanwu Mountain Temple Fair

118.Xuanwu Mountain Temple Fair

Nominating Unit: Lufeng Municipality, City of Shanwei

Located in the northern suburbs of Jieshi Town, Lufeng City, and specially preserved as an important historical site of China, Xuanwu Mountain Temple was built in the 1st year of Jianyan (1127) in the Southern Song Dynasty with a history of more than 880 years. It is said that since 41st year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign (1777) in the Qing Dynasty, the local people would hold a Chongguang celebration every ten years, the Xuanwu Mountain Temple Fair is one of the traditional folk activities for the celebration.

The temple fair, organized and held by the council selected by the local folk male lay devotees, can be divided into two parts: the activity within the temple and the civil activity. The former mainly includes repairing the temple, the consecration ceremony of the statue of Buddha, and various practices of magic on water or on land, while the latter includes local literature and art performance and traditional opera. During the temple fair, every local folk artist shows their skills to present brilliant folk arts with regional cultural characteristics like lamps with a dragon, lion or fi sh on it, big flags, flower basket, stilt, Gaojing, and Zhumaxi (operas showed through bamboo horses). Performance and fi reworks can be seen in fixed places. Every street is decorated with lamps and flowers; and every family is festooned with lights. Besides, gathered by the organizations or villages and communities with Yuanshen Temple as the center, the magnificent parade and artistic show teams for the celebration singing and dancing in the streets shows a scene of happiness and peace.(https://www.daowen.com)

In the course of the Xuanwu Mountain Temple Fair, the traditional religious rites, combined with the local customs and social cultural activities, formed unique cultural characteristics. The various activities held spontaneously by the local people in the temple fair gathered the quintessence of the traditional art, which plays a significant role in inheriting and developing folk art.

As the society, economy and culture develop and the foreign cultures invade, people are gradually losing their original interest in the traditional folk activities. How should we pass on and protect this traditional folk activity of the Xuanwu Mountain Temple Fair under the present situation calls for urgent solutions.