Shiling Pangu Cultural Festival holds grand opening in Guangzhou

The 2018 Shiling Pangu Cultural Festival holds a grand opening in Shiling town, Guangzhou on Sept 20. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2018 China (Shiling) Cultural Festival launched the opening ceremony on Sept 20. The festival, which will be held in Shiling town, Guangzhou from Sept 20 to 22, will celebrate Pangu, the creator of the world and all living things in Chinese mythology.

The festival, with the theme of praying for Pangu for prosperity, is a birthday blessing celebration of Pangu. The blessing ceremony starts with nine deep and loud bells from the temple. An elder surrounded by eight mature in Han Chinese clothing playing eight drums at the eight directions announced the beginning of the festival. Thus lifting the curtain on the 2018 Shiling Pangu Cultural Festival.

Young teenagers read Pangu Song at the blessing ceremony of the 2018 Shiling Pangu Cultural Festival. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Sixty young teenagers read aloud the Pangu Song on the stage, a poem specially created for the festival that praise the Pangu's achievements in the creation of the world and his spirit of daring to be the first. Lotus Dance, a traditional Chinese dance brought by a team of 100 young actors, enhances the ceremony to be more artistic and appealing. The actors walked onto the stage with various tributes, blessing for world peace and forever prosperity. At last, the lion dance made the ceremony come to a climax as the high pile lion climbing to the highest point and spitting out seven blessing slogans of the festival.

A lion dance performance on the opening ceremony attracts many visitors. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Apart from the blessing ceremony, a wide range of activities will also be hosted, including lion dance competition, intangible cultural heritage exhibition, excellent performance of Cantonese opera and photographic exhibition.

The Shiling Pangu Cultural Festival was added to the list of Guangzhou municipal cultural heritages in 2007, and eight years later, it was included on the list of Guangdong provincial intangible cultural heritages. This is the second year Shiling town is hosting this great event honoring Pangu.