On Sept. 27th, 2018 Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair & Autumn Sacrifice Ceremony was held in Dangyang，Hubei. More than 2,000 people, including scholars of Guan Gong Culture, Guan's descendants, believers of Guan and local people, gathered to worship Guan Yu.
It is the first time that “Dangyang Legend (Dangyang Sha Stories) ”, a project of Hubei Intangible Cultural Heritage, has been integrated into the Guanling Temple Fair. It is a large-scale folk entertainment combined with the elements of Chinese martial arts, opera, music, dances and so on. The performance mainly simulates the fight scene of battlefield, which shows the story that Guan Yu fought his way through five passes and killed six generals.
After the performance, the sacrificial rite began. Guan Zhangxun, the national inheritor of Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair of Hubei, the 62ndgeneration of Guan Yu, conferred believers titles and gave ribbons to them. Then the chief priest had led the people to complete a series of sacrificial rites, and the guests from home and abroad came to the stage to worship and express their respect and admiration to Guan Gong in turn.
It is learned that Dangyang Guanling Temple Fair originated from sacrificing Guan Gong, and the sacrificial ceremony is the core of the Temple Fair. Since the 1990s, Guanling Temple Fair has been on consecutively for 27 years, listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. Now, Guanling Autumn Sacrificial Ceremony and Guanling Temple Fair play an important role in enhancing the relationship and promoting the exchanges and cooperation of all the Chinese in the world, especially the Chinese across the Taiwan Strait.
Sun Luhua, Chairman of the Malaysian Guan Gong Cultural Extension Center, delivered a speech on behalf of the Guan Gong Culture Delegation of Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. He said: "The sacrificial ceremony has not only attracted Chinese from all over the world to worship Guan Gong in Dangyang, but also inherited the splendid Guan Gong Culture overseas."(Reporter: Tian Dongming; Correspondent: Mao Yufeng, Chen Ye)