Boluo Birthday

119.Boluo Birthday

Nominating Unit: City of Guangzhou

Boluo Birthday is a popular folk activity in Guangzhou, which is also known as Nanhaishendan or Nanhai Boluo Birthday. It is a temple fair commemorating Nanhaishen (the birthday of South Sea God), which has a history of more than 1000 years. It usually falls on the 11th day of the second month and ends on the 13th day of the second month on the lunar calendar, with 13th as the Birthday of Nanhai God.

It is hard to confirm when the temple fair was initiated now. However, we can see the pageants of it in the poems from Ji Shi of Liu Kezhuang in the Southern Song Dynasty, which reads: “It’s time for burning incense; it’s time of February. The streets are quiet; for Temple for the Sea God is what is required.” and“Crowd of kids in Dongmiao (the east temple), fleet of ships in Nanhai (south sea); is it Guangzhou or Yangzhou?” Since the Ming Dynasty, there were great changes of environment and function around Nanhaishen Temple. With the declining of the commerce in Fuxu harbor, although the rulers still attached importance to the worshipping of the sea in Nanhaishen temple, the function of the temple was inevitably changed for folk activities. Boluo Birthday Temple Fair became an entertainment for people. Worshipping and folk activities were held more and more frequently, reaching its peak in the Qing Dynasty. A Panyu Juren (first-degree scholar), named Cuibi who lived during the reign of Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty, gave a vivid description about the temple fair in Boluo Wai Ji, in which he said that “Boluo Temple is very busy in early February, with ships and boats mooring around, forming a line of more than ten miles. Those which cannot reach the banks made a bridge by putting up a long pole, on which laying boards. In this way, people manage to reach the bank by crossing ten boats.” Nowadays, people’s worshipping in the temple has no longer in relationship with the maritime trade or official worship of Nanhaishen. It’s only folk worshipping and blessing. In the 1950s, the temple fair broke off for several years, because of its long years’ under repair and the impact of the ultra-Left ideology. It is until the 1980s when the temple was rebuilt that the temple fair was recovered.

There’s a variety of traditional folk activities during Boluo Birthday Temple Fair, such as celebrations on water, gathering of townships nearby , the make-up parade, dragon and lion dances, Piaose performances, traditional opera performances, dragon boats event, scholars’ gathering, flower festival and other activities. You can also find things reflect the customs and habits of Guangzhou in the temple fair, such as Boluo roosters, Boluo amulets, big palm fans, windmills, small lion’s head and so on. Buying a Boluo rooster is a major activity during the Boluo Birthday . As the legend goes,“Boluo” roosters are a “magical” and only one out of 100,000 paper roosters can crow like a real rooster. The lucky fellow who gets the crowing paper rooster will strike a fortune. Traditional Boluo roosters are solid. The making of it is very complicated and greatly affected by weather from the procedure of mud choosing to paper sticking, chicken hair picking, drying and coloring. It always cost one year for skilled craftsman to make the Boluo roosters. On the day, all the households of the fifteen nearby villages make cakes and rice dumplings for worshipping or giving to relatives and friends. The rice dumplings are called “Boluo zongzi”, which is also part of the unique folk customs.(https://www.daowen.com)

Boluo Birthday Temple Fair is one of the biggest traditional temple fairs. People living ten miles around the Boluo temple come for “You Boluo (visiting the fair)” when the fair is held. The festive atmosphere is just like that of the Spring Festival. There’s a local saying goes, “Visiting Boluo is the first, while finding a wife is the second”. From this saying we can see that the temple fair is highly regarded by people who even compare it with marriage. In 2005, Boluo Birthday Temple Fair was celebrated together with Guangzhou Folk Culture and Arts Festival. With the stage of the millennium temple fair, Guangzhou successfully displayed the folk culture and art of Guangzhou and Lingnan as well, which highlighted the temple fair held in the new era.

From official worship to folk entertainment, the evolution of Boluo Birthday witnessed the development of the sea worshipping culture of China. In addition, people in Guangzhou called the South Sea God Temple “Boluo Birthday Temple”, called Birthday of South Sea God “Boluo Birthday”, called Daxi Sikong “Boluo God”. Boluo temple and Boluo Birthday have been popular among people for such a long history, which reflects the inclusive marine characteristic of Guangzhou people. Moreover, Boluo Birthday is closely related to people’s lives. The custom of buying Boluo roosters integrated with the tradition of “Jiang Yitou (paying attention to symbolic meaning)” of Guangzhou people, forming a unique culture of the temple fair, which is of high historical and cultural values.

However, with the social development and technological advancement, some traditional customs of Boluo Birthday have been gradually changing or even disappearing. The skills of Boluo rooster making is in danger for lacking of successors. Therefore, it is urgent to take effective measures for support and protection.