“To welcome the arrival of the Spring Festival, we sing songs and burn red candles.” At the beginning of the year, the temple fair has always been the most worth looking forward to. Yesterday morning, the reporter learned from the news conference of the 10th Xiling New Year Temple Fair, that the Fair will be held respectively at the Commercial Pedestrian Street, Yiling Square and Children’s Park from January 23th to 31st where such traditional activities will be held as folklore performances, guessing lanterns riddles and sending spring festival couplets, and the first Chinese new year goods exhibition of Yiling District will make its debut too.

The temple fair with a planned duration of 9 days will be both the largest and longest one ever, with the goods exhibition being its highlight.“Our Citizens can buy all those local New Year products they want from the different counties or cities within Yichang during a half day while enjoying the temple fair.” Dong Mei said, who is the fair organizer, also the vice executive director of the Publicity Department of the Xiling District Committee.

In the New Year temple fair, numerous folk art troupes of Yiling District will perform dancing, instrumental music, chorus, solo and fashion show. The fair also features other folklore performances such as dragon and lion dances, lotus blossom fairy dances, waist drum dancing, bass drum and square dance. In addition, there will be traditional temple fair activities like celebrities sending spring festival couplets and lantern riddle guessing along with an picture exhibition of the previous years’ temple fairs and the Chinese new year goods exhibition. All these activities jointly provide a cultural feast for the citizens. (Reporter: Wang Weidi)