Zhongyuan Festival
01 · Historical Records
The ritual sequence of "inviting the family hall" in Laiwu has circulated around the headwaters of the Wen and Zi rivers since the Ming dynasty, uninterrupted for more than four hundred years. This place lies just to the east of Mount Tai, where the customs of Qi and those of Lu converge: Lu placed weight on ancestral-hall autumn sacrifices, while Qi placed weight on braided offerings and agricultural timing; only after these two sets of annual customs were blended did there grow up the "passing the half year" festival marked by inviting the family hall. The entire ritual sequence can be summed up in five characters—inviting, offering, worshipping, sending off, and gathering: first the ancestors are invited down to the hall, then offerings are presented, incense burned, and bows made, after which the spirits are sent back to their places and the whole family sits gathered around the table; once these five steps are complete, a family's order for the year is set anew. The ceremony is managed within the family, and the rescue work undertaken in recent years by the Jinan Folk Custom Society has likewise fallen on the recording and restoration of the ritual sequence's details.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Zhongyuan Festival customs are festive customs observed during the Zhongyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, characterized by ancestor worship as their theme and by filial affection and family reunion. These two districts lie in the central part of Shandong Province, to the east of Mount Tai, at the headwaters of the Wen and Zi rivers, in a zone where the cultures of Qi and Lu blend; on the basis of absorbing Confucian culture, they have formed a deep cultural foundation. The entire ancestor-worship ceremony can be summarized in five characters: inviting, offering, worshipping, sending off, and gathering. First, the specific content of ancestor worship—the main body of the Laiwu Zhongyuan Festival customs—is very distinct: folk activities centered on the ancestor-worship ceremony emphasize the themes of filial affection and family reunion; the rites are similar to those of the New Year, and the main characteristic is inviting the family hall. Second, the Zhongyuan Festival is, in local people's minds, the second most important festival after the Spring Festival; it is known as "passing the half year," and even family members working away from home must return home to observe the festival on this day. The people of Laiwu regard the Zhongyuan Festival as an important basis of their identity. With the advance of modernization, the Zhongyuan Festival customs show a tendency toward simplification in ritual details.
Inviting the family tablet
The opening act: the table is set, the tablets of the ancestors, including those away from home, are brought down and seated.
Offering and bowing
Wine, dishes and fruit are offered in order and the household bows in strict sequence of seniority, rehearsing the hierarchy of the lineage.
Seeing the tablets back
The tablets are returned one by one and paper messages burnt, closing the rite that brought the ancestors down only once in the year.
Keeping the half-year festival
Locally the day ranks second only to the Spring Festival, drawing working relatives home for reunion meals and lamps kept burning through the night.
Simplification of the ancestral rite today
Offerings and episodes are pared back and full prostration gives way to a bow, yet the five beats of the rite largely remain.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
While inheriting the long-standing autumn-sacrifice tradition of the Chinese nation, the Laiwu Zhongyuan Festival customs have also developed their own regional characteristics. This heritage item is mainly distributed in Laiwu District and Gangcheng District of Jinan City. Local people call this custom "inviting the family hall on the fifteenth of the seventh month"; its main content includes such activities as inviting the family hall, sending off the family hall, and the family banquet. In local people's minds, the Zhongyuan Festival is a special festival, characterized chiefly by its specific content of ancestor worship, its distinctive consciousness of seasonal timing, and the regional identity passed down within families.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhongyuan Festival · Zhongyuan Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Laiwu Zhongyuan Festival customs have a history of more than four hundred years in the Laiwu area, handed down from the Ming dynasty to the present without interruption; they remain vividly preserved in the lives of the Laiwu people, and the inheriting community is the family organizations living within Laiwu. Third, this custom embodies the regional identity passed down within families; centered on transmission within the family or household, it has formed a stable inheriting community with regional characteristics. The Jinan Folk Custom Society has actively carried out rescue and protection work on these customary activities, and initial results have been achieved. The Zhongyuan Festival customs of the Laiwu area have continued uninterrupted through a history of more than four hundred years; the preservation of the ancestor-worship custom to this day demonstrates the strong vitality of folk transmission, as well as the festival's deep historical foundations and stable momentum of inheritance, giving it considerable historical value. At the same time, through the worship of ancestors, this folk custom strengthens people's—especially the younger generation's—sense of family responsibility, their consciousness of home, and their concept of filial piety, allowing the traditional national spirit of "filiality first" to be concentrated and passed on, and laying a foundation for shaping and transmitting good family tradition. Finally, through ritual activities, oral legends, and taboo customs passed down from generation to generation, the inheriting community transmits a culture of filial affection and moral norms, which has precious cultural value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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