Memorial Ceremony
01 · Historical Records
According to the Annals of Emperor Huan in the Book of the Later Han: "In the eighth year of the Yanxi era of the Han dynasty (165 CE), in the first month of spring, the Regular Attendant Zuo Guan was sent to Ku County to offer sacrifices to Laozi." The Taiqing Palace in Luyi (Laozi's birthplace) and the Laojun Terrace (traditionally said to be the place where Laozi gave lectures, also called the Ascending Immortal Terrace), both built in the Han dynasty, have long been important venues of the Laozi Festival; in 2001 they were designated National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Laozi Festival is a grand folk activity circulating in Luyi County, Henan Province, in which the great thinker Laozi is worshipped. Thereafter, the worship of Laozi in succeeding generations continued unbroken; Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Emperor Zhenzong of Song, and others successively came to Luyi to worship Laozi, the grandest scale being reached in the Tang and Song dynasties. At the same time, folk worship of Laozi grew ever more prosperous; the smelting, ceramics, and other trades all took Laozi as an object of veneration. Each year it begins on the 15th day of the second lunar month and continues until the 15th day of the third lunar month. The grandest ceremony is the public memorial rite on the 15th day of the second lunar month, presided over by a Li-surname festival head elected by the people; it comprises four forms — music, dance, song, and ritual — and the proceedings include firing salutes and playing music, presenting flower baskets, offering incense and pouring libations, respectfully reading the sacrificial text, performing obeisance, and offering song-and-dance sacrifices. The festival is also accompanied by many folk community-fire (shehuo) activities, including land-boat dancing, stilt walking, danjingtiao (carrying scripture poles), iron-beating dance, Laozi health-preservation boxing, dragon dance, lion dance, and recitation of the Tao Te Ching. Community members also worship Laozi on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month, on the auspicious days of the third, sixth, and ninth, and on major festivals; in daily life, such as moving house, entering school, and going on journeys, there are also customs of worshipping Laozi, and people spontaneously pass on Laozi's legends, stories, and proverbs, with a focus on cultivating inheritors of the Li-surname worship rituals. During the festival, folk arts gather together and art merges with ritual. In the festival rituals, people highly distill the thought of the sage, eulogize his virtue and wisdom, and extol the morality of the worthy; the rituals are accompanied by many artistic forms, expressing the people's sincere feelings, and are of high cultural and artistic value. Through the organization and promotion of the activities, people enhance mutual understanding; consultation and communication between the people and among organizations make the festival a platform for local people to strengthen unity and foster identity, demonstrating the social value of the activity. Through the Laozi Festival, Laozi's teachings such as "honoring the Way and valuing virtue," "the Way follows nature," and "the highest good is like water" are further propagated.
The protocol of the public sacrifice
The public sacrifice of the fifteenth day, led by a Li-surname headman elected by the people, runs from firecrackers and music through flower baskets, incense, reading the sacrifice text and kneeling rites.
Trade sacrifices and lineage sacrifices
Besides the public sacrifice come trade sacrifices and lineage sacrifices; metalwork and pottery workshops each keep their own timing, while Li descendants hold a separate rite for their ancestors.
Folk performances sharing the festival ground
Dry boats, stilts, pole-bearing dances, smithing dances, dragons and lions take turns on the same ground as the chanting of the Dao De Jing.
The Laozi health-preserving boxing
A boxing routine of calligraphic exercise movements linked to Laozi, practised casually on open ground beside the temple with no gatekeeping.
Incense at Taiqing Palace and Laojun Terrace
Taiqing Palace and Laojun Terrace, key protected sites since 2001, are the principal venues; the Book of the Later Han records an imperial sacrifice to Laozi at Kushian in 165.
The everyday fifteenth-day worship
Beyond the festival, households in Luyi offer to Laozi on the first and fifteenth of each month and on auspicious days, as well as at moving, schooling and travel occasions.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Folk worship of Laozi has been passed down from generation to generation in Luyi County; to this day local households still keep the custom of enshrining Lord Laozi (Laojun Ye). The Laozi Festival is divided into popular worship, trade worship, kinship worship, and public memorial ceremonies. The Laozi Festival is an important social practice for inheriting and promoting Laozi culture and thought; it is the spiritual sustenance and folk belief of local people, an important component of the community culture and folk activities of Luyi, the hometown of Laozi, and an important form for descendants of the Li family to remember their ancestors.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
On Laozi's birthday, the number of worshippers often reaches as many as 500,000; the scale is grand, the content rich, the history long, and the transmission orderly, and its influence extends to Henan, Anhui, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Southeast Asia. In recent years, Luyi County has successively restored the Taiqing Palace, the Laojun Terrace, and other important cultural venues of the Laozi Festival, and has collected, archived, preserved, and protected historical inscriptions, genealogies, classical texts, and artifacts. Through the Laozi Festival, people express their remembrance, commemoration, and reverence for the ancient philosopher; using the established ceremonial forms of successive dynasties, they continue the nation's historical and cultural lineage, enabling people to lift their spirits and bolster their resolve amid solemnity, which demonstrates its historical value. The Laozi Festival helps to inherit and promote the excellent traditional culture of China, strengthen national cultural confidence, and reinforce the nation's centripetal force and cohesion.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。