Quzhou Marks The 2,560th Anniversary Of Confucius's Birthday

A Worship ceremony was hold at a.m. 9 on September 28 for honoring the 2,560th anniversary of Confucius's birthday in the Great Hall of Confucius Temple, which located in Quzhou, a city enjoys the reputation of the holly land for southen desendants of Confucius .

During the ceremony, the Great Hall was extremely holly and solemn with banners and streamers flickering and swaying and the oil lamp suspending high in the spiralling smoke and melodious drums and pipes. At 9 o clock, the ceremony was officiated by Shang Qing, the mayor and deputy secretary of Quzhou municipal committee of the CPC, and went on with the first chapter, The Memorial Rites . After the rite music, burning of joss sticks, sacrificing five cereals, and bowing before the statue of Confucius and presenting the flower basket, the chief officiator Ge Huijun, the member of standing committee and deputy governor of Zhejiang Province, accompanied the officiator, Kong Xiangkai, the 75th eldest grandson of the direct line of the desendants to get seated. Continuely, the chief officiators chanted the worship writing, Address to Confucius , which cherished the Confucius career and spirit of contributing to the world of great harmony and educating the people tirelessly with his moral principle, and also stated the significance of adapting the Confucianism to educate the mass, to bring prosperity in culture and to promote harmony in the society.

After the worship chanting, the ceremony continued with the second chapter, Eulogy Chanting . In the procedure, Reng Zhihong, the host of CCTV, Hong Yun, a famous broadcaster, and Xi Wen and Xu Ting from Zhejiang satellite tv station read aloud the chapters in The Analects of Confucius . The ceremony was finally ended by the song Ode to the Society of Great Harmony sung by all the thousands of participants. The whole ceremony was hold in the majestic atmosphere of Confucianism to carry forward the excellent traditional culture and promote the modern culture to be flourishing.

The only two Confucius Temple are in Qufu, Shandong, and Quzhou, Zhejiang. Kong Xiangkai, the 75th eldest grandson of the direct line of the desendants told the journalist, The people along Sishui river and Qiantangjiang river have the same ancestor of Confucius, they all have the responsibility of carrying forward Confucianism to honor their ancestor .

Different from the Confucius worship ceremony from the other places, Kong Xingkai suggested modern memorial rites as the niche of worship ceremony in the southern Confucius Temple to welcome to participants from all fields. All are in modern clothes, and the memory ceremony is hold with etiquette accord with the modern people, such as sacrificing five cereals , chanting The Analects of Confucius . It is known the whole proceeding of the ceremony this year was elaborately designed by Kong Xiangkai, who carefully revised the Address to Confucius by weighing every word, and set Ode to the Society of Great Harmony to music by himself for the ceremony.

After the successful holding of China ?Quzhou International Confucius Culture Festival and Worship Ceremony in 2004, every day of September 28 is supposed to hold the worship ceremony. The ceremony was hold in minor way anually, midium way every two years, and major way every five years.

Confucius was born in 551 B.C., and died in 479 B.C., and he lived in Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period. He was one of the greatest thinker and educator, and was honored as capable and virtuous man by every emperor. Culture is the root of a nation and the soul of a city, and is the origin of promoting the national soft strength , said ? ? Stuart from Saint Petersburg University, It is a maintaining and valuing of traditional culture hetitage for China to hold worship ceremony for Confucius, and it present the significance to explore the modern significance of traditional culture and build harmonious society .

It is reported more than one thousand participants appeared at the ceremony. The delegations include those from the International Confucius Federation, the Confucius Fund in China, each municipality representatives in Zhejiang, and those from 9 other cities in the surrouding four proncinces, the representatives of Kong as a family name, and the foreign guests from the Confucius Colleges in Russia, Pilippines, Costa Rica, Thailand, Mongolia, Singapore, and Peru.