The spring holiday can be more than banquets with families and
friends, lazing around on sofas watching TV soaps and surfing the
Internet. There are plenty of activities that happen during the
spring festival, such as temple fairs.
Baiyunguan: touring on a donkey
Baiyunguan is the biggest Taoist temple in northern China. From
the beginning of the first month of the lunar year, the temple
holds a fair for 18 and a half days. It is the longest temple fair
in Beijing.
The Baiyunguan Temple Fair began in Yuan Dynasty (1206-1370),
and its apex was at the end of Ming and start of Qing Dynasty. At
first, the fair was a small one with scattered performances limited
to the gate. Starting from Ming Dynasty, activities increased both
inside and out.
The temple has hidden reliefs of stone monkeys on its walls,
though during the temple fair, occasional queues of people waiting
to touch could ruin the fun of finding the reliefs. People believe
touching the monkeys can bring luck and fortunate.
The temple's bridge is another popular stop. Two large, bronze
coins hang from the bridge with a small bell in the center. Peope
throw coins to strike the bell for good luck.
Baiyunguan is also a place to ride donkeys. In ancient times,
due to bad traffic, people usually went to temple fair by donkey.
Though many people today have cars, you can still tour the fair on
one of the temple's donkeys.
Changdian: oldest temple fair
The Changdian Temple Fair is one of the city's oldest, and has
been held to celebrate the fesival for 400 years. It began in Ming
Dynasty (1368-1683) and reached its apex during the Qianlong
Emperor's rein (1735-1795).
The fair is held yearly, and opens on the first day of the first
lunar month and continues for half the month: it remains Beijing's
largest fair.During Yuan Dynasty (1206-1370), the government used
the area to build kilns to fire glazed tiles, called liuli in
Chinese. Its history of tile firing is why the area is known today
as Liulichangdian.
There were three temples in the Changdian area. During the first
month of the lunar year, vendors and crowds gathered there for
Buddhist ceremonies.
Changdian is close to the center of the city, so lots of people,
old and young, like to visit its fair during Spring Festival.
The fair focuses on ancient culture, including books,
calligraphy and paintings. Traditional snacks and toys are also
popular, and the area's laozihao stores provide traditional
cultural performances at the fair.
Longtanhu: sporty temple fair
The 25th Longtanhu Temple Fair will be held next Spring
Festival. The huahui competition, where people perform different
characters in historical stories, folk tales and real life, is one
of its main highlights.
The competition was first organized in 1987, and in 1996, teams
from Hong Kong, Macao and Japan participated for the first
time.
Another feature of the Longtanhu Temple Fair is the sports
competitions. Winter swimming, Chinese martial arts, wrestling,
taekwondo and xiangqi, or Chinese chess, competitions have been
held with professional players from national teams invited to
compete with visitors.
For this year's competition, the focus will be on the Olympic
Games. The park organizers are planning a large competition field
for this year which wil include 28 sports and activities.
Ditan: worshiping the earth
This year marks the 23rd anniversary of the Ditan Temple Fair.
The Land Worship Ceremony held on the first day of the lunar year
by the temple organizers is an important part of the fair.
The ceremony is held as it was during the Qing Dynasty. People
gather at the offering platform to wait for it to start. Since the
ceremony resumed in 1990, it has drawn hundreds of people every
year.
Before it starts, the four corners of the platform are used for
opera, dance and acrobatic performances. Actors play the role of
the emperor and his officials and perform the full nine stages of
the worship ceremony.
The Ditan Temple Fair draws more than the local snack vendors:
foods from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Sichuan
Province are readily available. Listening to the shouts of folk
artists hawking their goods is a way to travel back to the city's
past.
The game rooms also feature many traditional toys. Whether
you've seen them before or not, you can come to try them out and
learn how children played in the past.
It seems the Ditan Temple Fair is turning into a costume ball
because many visitors buy masks and hats. There are lots of snacks,
but they cost a lot and don't taste that great. The games were
mostly similar to the ones you would find at any Carnival.
(Beijing Today January 31, 2008)