The Ancient Temple Fair of Xun County

The Ancient Temple Fair of Xun County

Xun County town is historically well-known in China. The temple fair originates from over one thousand years ago when the emperor of the Later Zhao Dynasty organized people to carve the Pishan Buddha Statue. People at that time usually gathered to burn the incense and worship the mountain and the Buddha. During the period of more than one thousand years, a great number of monasteries and Taoist temples have been built one after another, and the fair has been increasingly expanded. Lasting one month from the lunar New Year’s Day to the 2^nd of the second lunar month, the Temple Fair of Xun County attracts millions of pilgrims and tourists from about 20 neighboring provinces, such as Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Anhui and even from abroad, for worshipping or sightseeing. Besides, many pilgrims from the surrounding cities come to burn incense and worship or to redeem a wish to the Buddha on the 1^st, the 15^th as well as the 3^rd, the 6^th, and the 9^th of every lunar month.

The Temple Fair of Xun County is a big platform to gather and carry on both religious culture and folk customs. Religious belief used to be the subject of temple fairs in history. On the two mountains, Dapi and Fuqiu, where ancient temples stand here and there, the culture of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism coexist in harmony. All those religious characters can bless and protect mankind in the hearts of the locals. Meanwhile, a great amount of chance occurrences to the numerous pilgrims added up to “epiphany”, so that there arose among the locals within a radius of several hundred kilometers a saying that the Xun County Mountain is epiphanic. Still, there is one more saying that it would take three years to achieve perfect virtues and merits if you go there to burn incense and worship, with the first year to make a wish, the second year the wish fulfilled and the third year to redeem the wish.

The performance of traditional merry-making activities in temple fair of Xun County is peculiarly distinctive, with its snacks, a variety of handicrafts catching the eyeballs of visitors.