On April 22, the third day of the third lunar month, Foshan restarted its Ancestral Temple Fair celebrating the birthday of the God of the North after three years' suspension, attracting visitors from all over the country. Local residents captured the wonderful moments of this national festive event and interacted closely with the performance groups, getting an up-close experience of Foshan's delightful folk customs.

This year's fair focuses on the theme of "Lingnan Wonder Land and Colourful Intangible Culture", carrying out diverse folk cultural events.

The spring blessing ritual of Foshan Ancestral Temple is the most traditional ritual dedicated to the God of the North in the Pearl River Delta. With a long history of nearly 600 years, it's the only national ritual in the Greater Bay Area. At 9:30 am on April 22, the ritual was held according to ancient patterns, with a full set of ritual vessels and oblations presented. It is to express the wishing for peace, harmony and prosperity.

After the ritual, the parade for the God of the North departed from the entrance of Ancestral Temple, passed through Zumiao Road, Renmin Road, Fuxian Road, Jianxin Road, and finally returned to three performance areas at the front gate of Ancestral Temple, where the audience can enjoy wonderful performances brought by each parade phalanx.

The fair will last for three days. During the event, there are special performances from Guizhou and Tibet, Chaozhou Yingge dance, and Hanfu performance. In addition, there will be other events, like Cantonese Opera at Wanfutai, calligraphy and painting exhibition, intangible cultural heritage skills exhibition, and gourmet market.

This year's fair also set up an intangible cultural heritage exhibition area to display the song and dance performances with ethnic characteristics from Guizhou and Tibet, showing the diversity in Chinese culture. And the intangible cultural heritage themed market will focus on national and provincial intangible cultural heritages in Foshan, including colored woven mat, paper cutting, New Year painting and Shiwan pottery.

Reporter | Elanor, Tang

Reviser | Eddie